Marathon Is DEAD, Bungie Caught Stealing Again: They're Completely F*CKED...

Marathon is dead. Full stop. There is NO Coming Back From This...

As someone who’s been following Bungie for years, and even going so far as to say I've been rooting for them, specifically back in their earlier days of Halo... through the ups and downs of Destiny, and beyond, now... this latest scandal isn't just disappointing. It’s the final nail in the coffin for them. Bungie is 100% COOKED.

Bungie was caught red-handed ...Again!

Games can fail for all sorts of reasons, but here we have a unique usecase... No -not for bad balancing. Not for botched live service management. Not even for another soulless cash grab (although that last one here is debatable). No, this time it’s for stealing artwork. Now... Multiple times. From independent artists who are barely scraping by, while Bungie cashes Sony’s checks and burns whatever's left of their disintegrating credibility.

The Evidence Is Overwhelmingly Terrible...

The artist, Fern Hook (aka N2/Antireal), found that entire chunks of his 2017 poster designs were taken - and plastered all over the Marathon alpha, without any credit or notice, without permission, and some could argue, most importantly without any compensation. Bungie has since confirmed this happening, blaming a conveniently “former” employee and launching a “thorough review.” That’s corporate-speak for “We got caught. Again.”

Antireal has also now stepped forward to show that his decade of visual language and symbols were also “pillaged,” in his words, for Marathon’s art direction. That’s two separate cases—just in the alpha.

“I’ve lost count of the number of times a major company has deemed it easier to steal my work than write me an email”

~Antireal

These aren’t just similarities or coincidences. These are copy-pastes, used without permission, in Bungie's next big tentpole title... and they got caught because players in the alpha recognized the designs. That’s how blatant it was.

The FOURTH Time Now... A Pattern of Theft

This isn’t Bungie’s first offense, either...

• They were sued for allegedly stealing Destiny 2’s Red War story, and conveniently can’t defend themselves because that content was “vaulted.”

  

• Or how they took 'inspiration from another artist for Destiny 2:

  

• They also copied a fan’s Ace of Spades NERF gun design down to the last scratch.

  

• And now Marathon is just a collage of ripped-off indie artwork.

  

It’s not a one-time “oops.” It’s an established pattern. And no amount of any PR-friendly statements or “thorough reviews” can fix that... Even though of course, they are trying.

The Game Was Already in Trouble

Let’s be honest, Marathon already looked like a failed experiment. A soulless extraction shooter with no identity, no audience, and zero interest from the community... That they wanted to CHARGE MONEY to buy and play in a field of well established looter-shooters that are already FTP and high quality. Alpha testers weren’t all too impressed, the gameplay didn’t stand out, and now we know why the visuals felt so disjointed, because they were Frankensteined together from stolen assets! Shocker...

This was supposed to be Bungie’s next big thing. Instead, it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. And Sony, who acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion, has to be kicking themselves right now. This is going to go down as one of the biggest scandals of 2025. For such a massive property, plagiarism can NOT be involved.

The Verdict: Marathon Is DONE

The trust is gone. The brand's beyond tainted. Bungie has lost the plot... and with it, the goodwill of the community that once held them in high regard.

You can’t build a game on stolen work and expect gamers to just cheer you on like nothing happened.

Marathon is dead. And Bungie has no one to blame but themselves. I don't think there is any coming back from this.

~Smash