We immediately investigated a concern regarding unauthorized use of artist decals in Marathon and confirmed that a former Bungie artist included these in a texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game.
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You have this issue every year now. I would really think you would do better. Stop outsourcing and do in house/stop firing people. The lack of stability and constant failure to be ethical is killing your games.
Your art director is literally following Antireal on x. And it goes further than individual assets, the whole vibe of the game is derivative of their work. This is a top-down issue for the art team.
that doesn't mean anything. designers follow other designers. antireal's work is incredible but it's not unique, it's a fairly common design style done my many artists. they didn't invent it. look at for example, old wipeout game designs. its an established style.
Buddy, you can quite literally cross-reference where assets were directly ripped, at times even literally word for word for use as assets in both promotional and in-game use. This isn't just "using an established style", its just straight up intellectual property theft.
you're missing what I'm saying. I agree it's a direct rip off, that's undisputed. What I'm saying is, just because the art director is following them doesn't mean they're the one that stole the work. Look at the stuff Joe Cross actually posts, it's mostly concept stuff and 3D work. not the same.
This is about what he put into the game as the art director. There's no way he should allow plagiarism of an artist that he's been following for years to make it into an official product. If he didn't do it himself, he allowed it on the part of one of his underlings. He should be fired.
The buck stops with the lead art director. He in the end needs to bear the responsibility for this. It's part of HIS job to keep this kind of thing from happening.
you don't get it, he's an uwu smol bean corporate administrator making only (at least) lower six-figures! every member of a company well-known for theft, sexual harassment and brutal overwork deserves the benefit of the doubt!
the absolute serf mindsets some people got about these shenanigans, man
see that's a somewhat fair argument. but I don't know the ins and outs of their job description. they definitely need a much tighter policy to catch this stuff in the future. I would imagine they're very busy creating art themselves to be spending all day going through other designs checking (1/2)
The entire art DESIGN of the game was based on the works of this artist. She needs to be compensated in a ridiculous way and I’d consider hiring her on as the lead art designer because that’s basically what she is!
This is gross and unacceptable. No apology is going to undo the damage you've done to the artist who you stole the work from. Sad for anyone at Bungie who did not know what was going on that is inevitably hit with whatever repercussions come. Zero chance I buy Marathon or any Bungie game after this.
The right thing to do would be to compensate and credit the artist(s) whose art your staff - current or former - stole. As a first step, @antire.al should already have been mentioned here and publicly apologised to.
"yeah, we got caught stealing, but uh ... It wasn't actually us! We don't claim any responsibility whatsoever, it was just a former employee stealing logos and not, you know, the entire art style of the game!"
Oh, how convenient that it was a “former” employee! This has happened like 5 or 6 times with Destiny, bad fucking start for Marathon to just lie to cover your ass. You already killed your only moneymaker, good luck getting anyone on board with this shitshow if this is how you’re starting out.
I and everyone else watching this expect that artist to be compensated about 10 times what you consider to be fair in this situation. Bungie stole and the 10 people left in the building knew damn well those assets were stolen. You never improve. You’ve done this over and over to us. Go bankrupt atp.
Couldn't even finish the most important lie lmfao.
This is not Bungie's first time stealing art. And considering how integral this art is to the entire aesthetic of the game, AND the fact your art director was following the artist, there's no way in hell this was a "one-person accident". Fuck off.
the art director following the artist doesn't mean anything whatsoever. designers follow other designers because they like their work, and anti real is well known in the design community. this would've been a low level designer.
In a vacuum? No, obviously not. But this is
A) like the fourth or fifth time Bungie has been caught stealing art, and
B) apparently it was a good number of the art team following this artist.
There's precedent. So again, there's no way in hell this was a "one-person" fuck up.
I would imagine a lot of the art team follow antireal because they like their work. they may have even been mentioned as 'hey, this person's work is cool. this is the vibe we want'. Now should they have just hired them straight up? of course. but it's not exactly the smoking gun you think it is.
all art is derivative to an extent, antireal isn't the first person to make this style, they were inspired by other artists too. obviously stealing is where you draw the line and I hope the person responsible is fired.
thank you for not attacking me like a crazy person and being reasonable.
Brother, why are you playing devil's advocate for a multi-billion dollar company with an established history of art theft? Furthermore, why is your account only a day old and exclusively posting on this specific thread defending them?
Y'all couldn't be more obvious if you tried. Get fucked.
somewhat fair point, but I've been following them for years too and I would've just assumed it was a similar design style rather than a direct rip off until I saw them side by side. they should have a dedicated person overseeing this stuff, I'd imagine the art director is busy creating their own art
With it becoming a pattern for Bungie, they absolutely should have someone whose job is just to look for copyright infringement. At some point, carelessness becomes malice.
The one main selling point of your next big game was the art style. I'd say the decent thing to do is to fire the current Art Director and offer Antireal the position.
fire the art director that likely has nothing to do with this whatsoever? yeah, great idea. bungie suck for this but starting a witch hunt with zero proof is just as bad.
Nah. There's too much evidence that you guys knew exactly what you were doing. Artists e-mailed you about it and your art director follows them. The very least you can do now is to actually buy the art that has been stolen.
So, we had some unknown outsource companies at fault for plagiarizing previously and now unknown former empleyee? How convenient! Surely the fact that art director and other marathon artists follow her means nothing.
Going through your assets to see if there is any more theft is inadequate. This is the 4th time this has happened, which is damning in itself. The community has no faith that Bungie, as a multibillion dollar studio, won’t steal their personal art. Here’s what you owe the community:(1/2)
Why wasn’t this caught before? What process is being added to ensure that this doesn’t happen with future content? How can you ensure that process is followed/effective? You need to show unrelenting transparency around process changes if you ever hope to rebuild community trust around this.
It’s not possible to solve, but enforcing a process to have a “plagiarism review” would hopefully curb this reoccurrence. This was a literal copy/paste with minor alterations to hide the artists name (poorly might I add). At some point they’ll do this to the wrong person and get sued.
Y'all are just scapegoating a single person when a game of this size doesn't get anything approved without multiple eyes on it. This failure goes all the way up the chain. From the individual artist to Marathon's art lead and ultimately up to the art director for the entire studio.
This issue was unknown by our existing art team, and we are still reviewing how this oversight occurred.
We take matters like this very seriously. We have reached out to 4nt1r34l to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist.
could the toxic culture of AAA development, including unrealistic deadlines, hyper competitiveness for roles that forces folks to do *anything* to clear more tickets, and a history of overlooking unethical behavior have contributed?
or are you going to throw one person under the bus?
I’ve been assuming that as generic as that lawsuits claims are and whatnot that it was a cash grab, but when put into context like this, that guy’s case seems like it has some legs behind it.
And the fact that they can't prove they didn't, because suddenly they can't access the content, and had to use a fan-made, 10-hour lore video on YouTube to try and prove it. Just super sloppy.
At the end of the day, I’d say have @mynameisbyf.bsky.social read the other one and decide if there’s infringement, I’d trust his judgement on that fully 🤣
To prevent similar issues in the future, we are conducting a thorough review of our in-game assets, specifically those done by the former Bungie artist, and implementing stricter checks to document all artist contributions.
This is the third time in as many years that you (Bungie) have been caught with your hand in the cookie jar. (D2 cutscene in 2023, NERF Ace of Spades in 2024, now this)
We value the creativity and dedication of all artists who contribute to our games, and we are committed to doing right by them. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
I understand that 24 hours may not be long enough to specifically address what you will do to make this right and explain how it happened, but the entirety of this statement feels very empty. This has been a reoccurring issue and I am done taking Bungies word at face value.
Imagine implementing these “stricter checks” when this happened several times in Destiny’s current lifecycle. There’s starting to be an unhealthy pattern of this in this company. Fool me once…
Reread it. They’re not actually talking about stricter checks; they’re talking about going through their current assets to check for any more threats. This does NOTHING to prevent this from happening again. We need transparency about what they’re doing to prevent this from happing on future works.
this issue can't be reduced to a single former employee, the entire art direction is Very similar to the original Antireal pieces.
concerning bc the unique art style is one of the big "selling" points of the Marathon alpha so far
There's too much evidence that the franchise art director was closely following the people who made this art. It ultimately falls on him to decide how the game should look.
You can't say you're going to prevent similar issues like this in the future, when this isn't even the first fucking time art theft has happened at Bungie, nevermind the fact that your Art Director was apparently following the AntiReal Group, so HE HAD TO HAVE KNOWN this shit was stolen if he looked
Reread it. They’re not actually talking about stricter checks; they’re talking about going through their current assets to check for any more threats. This does NOTHING to prevent this from happening again. We need transparency about what they’re doing to prevent this from happing on future works.
Didn't think 'we don't do crimes!' needed to be official policy, but apparently bungie might need to communicate this a little more frequently to their art teams
yall act as if this isnt the first time this has happened. plagiarism and theft is a horrible thing to be caught doing once, and this is i think the third time?? get lost.
respectfully dude that doesn't mean anything, antireal is well known in the design community, many designers I know also follow them. it's not a stretch that Joe Cross, who is also an artist follows another artist.
look at his previous credits, he worked on the dune movies, a bunch of other high profile stuff. you don't get that far if you're stealing stuff. it would've been some random low level artist.
motherfucker your account was made 3 hours ago, you've made no posts of your own and all your account has done up to this point is try to defend a company that is blatantly stealing. shove the fuck off corpo.
A former Bungie Artist! And none of the rest of you knew! How absolutely convenient! And totally unbelievable! Especially since your art director FOLLOWS THE ARTIST, and you guys have stolen from artists before.
that literally means nothing whatsoever. designers follow other designers because they like their work, antireal is well known in the design space. Joe Cross worked on a bunch of Hollywood movies like dune, deadpool before working at bungie, you don't get that far if you're stealing people's work.
Don't give me "they're successful so they must be good" excuse. Don't run defense for a company you don't work for. People get into positions of power due to abuse, coercion, and thievery all the time and get away with it until caught.
4 times a suspect does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
I'm sorry? I created an account just now because I wanted to chime in on this because it's important to me. No need to be so rude about it, you're getting overly emotional about this and it's bizarre. Probably because you know you're wrong.
I'm not running defence, I'm just trying to push back on this completely irrational narrative that the art director is somehow responsible. Look at their portfolio, concept art for massive blockbusters. Most of the stuff they post isn't even in the same style, it's mostly concept art.
So your defense is they worked hard back then, they must always work hard. I bet you think Edison invented all the shit that's attached to his name as well, yeah he worked really hard, employing actual people to invent and contract them to give their ideas to him, that was nicer than what Tesla got.
No idea who that is. I get what you're saying, maybe the art director should be checking and overseeing all of this stuff, maybe not. I don't know what their job description is. I'm just saying it's highly, highly unlikely they're the one that actually stole it.
i really wish i could buy that this was actually just an overeager artist who got laid off to pay for pete parsons' 80th classic car but not only is this the 4th time this has happened, joseph cross was following and clearly aware of antireal. yall knew and fully intended on getting away with it
Who were the people who spoke up along the way? Where are they now? Promote them and listen to them. Of the people who let this happen, how many are gamers, and how many are corporate?
It matters when the people who care are in charge. Cheers to those who stepped out of line, and spoke up. #sol
i wonder how yall gonna play this
saying sorry and removing all the art
or
saying sorry , keeping the art, crediting the artist and paying him a biiiiiig faaaaaaat fucking check
Pick number 2 btw if the artist is okay with it.
Cuz number 1 means we all gonna pray your game flops.
Not just paying for the art. There needs to be punitive damages. If this goes to court I would hope (unrealistically) that the original artist would get a *percentage*, not just flat compensatory damages.
Putting myself in their position - I'm just not sure i'd want to work for a company who's stolen my art and done it multiple times in the past to other artists. This is a pattern.
Comments
the absolute serf mindsets some people got about these shenanigans, man
Wow. Brazen and amateurish.
Throwing someone under the bus who isn't named and doesn't work there anymore isn't accountability, either.
Mistakes happen and influences show. But wantonly using others' art without permission and scrubbing attribution is theft.
I hope the author or artworks will be compensated properly, rather than persuaded into minimum viable settlement.
This is not Bungie's first time stealing art. And considering how integral this art is to the entire aesthetic of the game, AND the fact your art director was following the artist, there's no way in hell this was a "one-person accident". Fuck off.
A) like the fourth or fifth time Bungie has been caught stealing art, and
B) apparently it was a good number of the art team following this artist.
There's precedent. So again, there's no way in hell this was a "one-person" fuck up.
thank you for not attacking me like a crazy person and being reasonable.
Y'all couldn't be more obvious if you tried. Get fucked.
In years past, your company has struggled repeatedly with stolen artwork for a variety of projects.
And more problematically, the style expressed in Antireal's art is the *entire* style of Marathon, as if it served as the basis.
Thin ice has cracks in it now, hell, that guy with the red war lawsuit may not be so damn crazy afterall.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/bungie-marathon-art-director-responds-to-criticism-that-the-game-is-too-bleak-looking/
"Person who doesn't work for us anymore did it." Isn't really cutting it.
Especially since JOSEPH CROSS, THE ART DIRECTOR, follows said artist on twitter.
We take matters like this very seriously. We have reached out to 4nt1r34l to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist.
or are you going to throw one person under the bus?
And the fact that they can't prove they didn't, because suddenly they can't access the content, and had to use a fan-made, 10-hour lore video on YouTube to try and prove it. Just super sloppy.
What are you going to do about the management that is repeatedly allowing this to happen?
This is a systemic problem.
But, holy fuck the entire art style of the game was lifted from the artist they stole from.
Rogue former employee my ass. Not at this scale.
i simply can’t believe you’re thanking anyone “for bringing this to our attention” just because it went viral.
what about all the times i’ve directly contacted you privately about using my work? why should i have to hurt your brand to be heard?
this issue can't be reduced to a single former employee, the entire art direction is Very similar to the original Antireal pieces.
concerning bc the unique art style is one of the big "selling" points of the Marathon alpha so far
many steps failed, not just one employee.
https://bsky.app/profile/sarsion.net/post/3lpacig227k22
You know how this happened.
The only reason they are pretending to care now is because it is getting public attention.
🫠
Fess up. Something in Bungie stinks and saying it was former employees or contractors doesn't cut it
I don't buy it.
Her fucking handle is in the game. If she's well known, the the art director should've recognized if an artist was plagiarizing her.
4 times a suspect does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
It matters when the people who care are in charge. Cheers to those who stepped out of line, and spoke up. #sol
saying sorry and removing all the art
or
saying sorry , keeping the art, crediting the artist and paying him a biiiiiig faaaaaaat fucking check
Pick number 2 btw if the artist is okay with it.
Cuz number 1 means we all gonna pray your game flops.
Stop beating around the bush.
Just contract them, already.
It'll be much easier for everybody involved.