Fern “Antireal” Hook, an artist who found her own designs and graphics at Bungie. Marathonconfirmed that it had “resolved” the issue with the studio and its parent company Sony.
Briefly update In a post on X/Twitter, Hook wrote: “The Marathon art issue has been resolved with the help of Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction.” She did not provide details of any settlement.
Destiny 2 developer Bungie back in May I faced accusations of plagiarism after Hook accused the studio of stealing aspects of her work for its upcoming shooter Marathon. In screenshots taken during Marathon's alpha testing that accompanied the tweet, Hook claimed she could see individual icons and graphics she had designed, some of which were originally published on social networks many years ago, in 2017..
Bungie certainly has no obligation to hire me to create a game that relies overwhelmingly on the same design language that I've perfected over the past decade, but it's clear that my work was good enough to plunder the ideas and splatter the entire game without payment or attribution. pic.twitter.com/G3FbPtbPJD
— Н² (@4nt1r34l) May 15, 2025
Soon after, Marathon game director Joe Ziegler and art director Joe Cross apologized during a painfully inconvenient live broadcast, in which there were no illustrations or video recordings of the Marathon at all, as the team was “still cleaning all of our assets to make sure we were respectful of the situation.” The studio launched an “immediate investigation,” eventually admitting that a “former Bungie artist” had indeed used Fern Hook's work without any compensation or credit.
And then, of course, The marathon was postponed until 2026 while Bungie worked to respond to playtest feedback. Everything went very quietly until the Marathon resumed in October.when Bungie announced that the loot shooter was ready for a limited invite-only playtest for North American and European players on PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam.
However, the problem of art continues to cast a shadow. Last month, the director of the short film Marathon expressed disbelief that he felt forced to come forward and defend his work as “not AI”.
The marathon has certainly experienced a difficult period of development and several delays. Amid Destiny 2's high-profile problems, Marathon's success is under pressure. Earlier this month, parent company Sony said Bungie failed to meet its sales and user engagement goals, resulting in a $200 million loss..
Vikki Blake is an IGN reporter, critic, columnist and consultant with over 15 years of experience working with the world's largest gaming sites and publications. She is also a Guardian, a Spartan, a Silent Hillian, a Legend, and the eternal Supreme Chaos. Find her in BlueSky.
