465
Bungie has issued an official statement, they are throwing an artist under the bus and pledging to make it right with the original artist.
This is a developing story.
Why did they have to copy anything?!
BUNGIE LITERALLY ALREADY MADE MARATHON
this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
465 points (98.5% liked)
Games
39232 readers
2542 users here now
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
Authorized Regular Threads
Related communities
PM a mod to add your own
Video games
Generic
- !gaming@Lemmy.world: Our sister community, focused on PC and console gaming. Meme are allowed.
- !photomode@feddit.uk: For all your screenshots needs, to share your love for games graphics.
- !vgmusic@lemmy.world: A community to share your love for video games music
Help and suggestions
By platform
By type
- !AutomationGames@lemmy.zip
- !Incremental_Games@incremental.social
- !LifeSimulation@lemmy.world
- !CityBuilders@sh.itjust.works
- !CozyGames@Lemmy.world
- !CRPG@lemmy.world
- !OtomeGames@ani.social
- !Shmups@lemmus.org
- !VisualNovels@ani.social
By games
- !Baldurs_Gate_3@lemmy.world
- !Cities_Skylines@lemmy.world
- !CassetteBeasts@Lemmy.world
- !Fallout@lemmy.world
- !FinalFantasyXIV@lemmy.world
- !Minecraft@Lemmy.world
- !NoMansSky@lemmy.world
- !Palia@Lemmy.world
- !Pokemon@lemm.ee
- !Skyrim@lemmy.world
- !StardewValley@lemm.ee
- !Subnautica2@Lemmy.world
- !WorkersAndResources@lemmy.world
Language specific
- !JeuxVideo@jlai.lu: French
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
This new game has essentially no relation besides name and logo to the old Marathon games. Sadly, because the old ones were the shit.
Calling this a Marathon game makes no sense, and I don't just mean aesthetically. The business case can't possibly be there, either.
Anyone who has a nostalgic attachment to Marathon (👋) won't be interested in this new game, and anyone interested in this new game probably doesn't care about the name "Marathon."
On top of that, there's the fact that Marathon kind of looked like Halo. When Bungie made Halo, they were clearly taking after their own art style from their previous games. Which means Bungie could have announced that they're making a singleplayer first person shooter that kind of looks like Halo. Everyone would have lost their minds. Instead, they announced yet another live service game, and no one is interested.
Well now I’m not buying it.
Its worse than that: this game is somehow CANON with the original Marathon
My vent core feels retroactively unblasted by this revelation. You really can't expect anything good from any of the major studios anymore these days.
load more comments
(1 replies)
It's hilariously awful because, as a fan of the original Marathon trilogy, the aesthetic of the new game is the only thing that appealed to me; and it was stolen.
I have no interest in an extraction shooter. You can make an extraction shooter if you want, but you gotta make something that players can get emotionally invested in first. Original Marathon players won't recognize this and new players won't care so what was the fucking point of any of this, I'm going crazy. This industry has lost all direction
They did steal artwork, but the whole aesthetic wasn't stolen... the stuff they stole is a very small part of the game (I'm pretty sure, haven't and won't play it). I'm in no way defending them, but saying the whole aesthetic was stolen just because they used some text and icons from someone istället just dumb.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I'm just spitballing, but the ip owner needs to do something with the ip so they can keep it? IIRC similar things have been mentioned here and there when some long forgotten ip suddenly gets a new loweffort installment.
So, could be that they were making the extraction shooty anyway, so they slapped Marathon on it "just to refresh the timer"? I dunno if that's how it works, not a lawyer.
I don't think so, because If I remember correctly:
When Bungie was bought by Sony, they specifically included in the contract that they get to make a Marathon game if Destiny 2 reaches certain goals. So they aimed for a marathon game for a long time and specifically included that in the negotiations. Beats me why they would do such a poor multiplayer take on the SINGLEPLAYER franchise that is fondly remembered by fans.
"something something monkey paw curls" - maybe the contract didn't specifically mention it would be a game of their liking, and so sony dictated it has to be a online-pvp-shooty
But then again, destiny was already an online-shooty so.. dunno.
Never played a Marathon game, but as they are free on steam (bundled with some source port with AFAIK modern controls), I need to gather my pals and play them.
To be honest, the games are too old gameplay wise for me to enjoy as games, but the story? Its great
I just wish they would revamp it with a modern engine and smooth out the story a little. I’d pay for that again. I bought the original as a freaking preorder back in the 90s (loved that box) and just adored it.
I was hoping it was gonna be a clever, fun story shooter like the original. But it just sounds like a reskinned Helldivers with no connection to the original besides the name.
Luckily classic Marathon is available on Steam for free.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Legit, i only clicked this because i was "wait wtf? system 7 marathon??"
Yeah but that Marathon was innovative, looked good, and was fun to play. That would never work in this day and age. Also I think the only thing that same about the two is the name.
They just trained their employees using other people’s copyrighted works. What’s the problem?
The implication that generative AI would spit out pixel-for-pixel copies from its training data is flat out wrong. Even generative AI would have made more original assets than what Bungie put in Marathon. The worst part is that this is like the 4th time they've been caught doing this.
Being inspired by an art style and using that style is fine, and completely normal. Thats how art works. But copying and pasting 1 for 1 is not fine.
I agree but it can get pretty close. Try asking gpt-4o to generate a realistic picture of an adventure who wears a hat and wields a whip to find lost treasure. It returns basically a picture of Harrison Ford
load more comments
(3 replies)
There's nothing wrong with inspiration (attribution is nice), but what's evident is they straight up LIFTED parts of antireal's art into in-game assets.
This is something Sam Altman would say
The lead art director of marathon has followed her since before the game began development and he still stole her shit wholesale. Disgusting.
Bungie had similar problems with Destiny 2, if I remember correctly.
Bungie commented on the current issue an hour ago.
Love the response. Very CYA and they're called out on it by multiple people:
hi, tell legal to reply to my email from months ago.
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?
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.
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
Honestly, at this point the company should be dismantled and the leadership thrown in prison. These corporate edgelords wont learn. They will just overstep, inch by inch and the courts will understate their deeds over and over until there is only one company that rules the world and sell you your fucking liver by the minute.
Dismantle this pile of shit.
🎶 Oops I did it again! 🎶
🎶 I stole your art, added it to my game, ooh baby 🎶
Should have just used AI, at least then people could debate whether or not it was plagiarism
I wasn't expecting quality from modern Bungie but this is definitely an unexpected low
Man, as somebody who grew up with Halo, it's really depressing to see how they seem to just be utterly incapable of an original thought anymore.
I mean is there even a simgle person still working on bungie that was somehow related to the good halos?
load more comments
(2 replies)
Is anyone actually shocked about modern Bungie?
I just assume any art coming out of Bungie is stolen now.
Joseph Cross has probably never made any original artwork, it's all just stolen from other people.
It's definitely a really bad look, but I can imagine how it could have happened.
A former artist or even an outsourced artist probably delivered them a texture sheet of graphics, nobody caught that several of the graphics were plaigerized, the artist never mentioned it, assumed it was purely for a blockout or temporary, maybe they used it during a mood boarding/visual development stage and it got pushed along the pipeline.
Trying to reverse search graphics your artists make for you would probably not be done in the good faith sense, if there wasn't suspicion that it wasn't original anyways? But happening four times seems like a reason to really crack down on that kind of thing for the future ... Bungies management has also constantly had issues too.
Artists use photobashing all the time to develop concepts since timelines push design work faster and faster. Photobashing other artists work is usually an issue but taking images or conepts within creative liberties through sufficient alteration or "transformative" use is typically the move if it was ever done.
I'd call it a management issue. Probably bad oversight of outsourcing, or maybe internally disorganized production. Also text and graphics seems like they'd probably have vetted the designs and someone really tried to pass it off without raising attention somehow ... So I'm guessing outsourced and not an internal employee? Idk.
It's wild that you dorks will up vote preemptive excuse making just because someone took a pleasant tone.
How is Bungie still in business? I loved destiny but after a while of them being so hostile and anti-consumer I just left. Fuck Bungie and fuck whoever works for those ass hats
Is the BlueSky OP here not a native English speaker? Cause, BOY that was tough to follow.
This will be entertaining in their ongoing Red War plagiarism lawsuit.
view more: next ›