Well this type of news is never fun to report on. A little less than 24 hours before the time of writing this(roughly 7am PST on 15 May 2025) the team at Bungie were accused of plagiarism again in regards to the development of their newest project, Marathon.

Twitter/X user 4nt1r34I posted the below, claiming their 2017 design work appears in the Marathon Alpha:

Not even 12 hours after this artist accused Bungie of stealing their art, the team behind Marathon responded via the MarathonDevTeam Twitter/X account and confirmed that indeed this happened: “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.”

The thread in the developer teams post does go on to say they have reached out to the original artist and are “committed to do right by the artist.” As of right now it’s unclear whether that involves removing the art or compensating the artist.

Bungie and Destiny plagiarism

However we may have an idea of how that might go as believe it or not this actually isn’t the first time Bungie has been accused of doing this. It’s actually the third instance in the last couple years that I’m aware of.

In June 2023 another Twitter/X user accused the now PlayStation owned developer working on Destiny 2 of stealing a key part of the art for the expansion, Lightfall:

Then in 2024 a user by the name of Tofu_Rabbit accused them of ripping off their gun design for an in-game gun skin:

It’s important to note in both of these cases, it is understood Bungie opted to pay the artists for the use of their art.

What’s your thoughts on these latest Bungie plagiarism claims? Let us know in the comments below. We will keep you posted on what exactly happens here at Gamer Social Club.