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Having to Pay for Plagiarism Is Not the Same As Never Having Done It
- Taylor Rioux
- 3 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Marathon — the latest title from the storied developer Bungie — began its open beta on Feb 26, with hundreds of thousands playing the game across PC and PS5. Despite its imminent release on March 5, 2026, nary a peep has been made as of late about the art theft controversies Bungie has found itself in over the years.
While Bungie is not the only game-maker to skate by relatively untouched by such accusations, this moment specifically feels odd to me.
Bungie’s Marathon-related art theft was first brought to light in 2025 by artist Fern “Antireal” Hook on Twitter, calling out former Bungie employee and then Marathon art director Joseph Cross by name. After this, Bungie issued an apology and confirmed that the assets were stolen. As part of the fallout from this incident, as well as other development concerns, Bungie delayed the release of the game indefinitely (later updated to March 5, 2026).
An image of the accusation and associated images by Antireal.
Eventually, Bungie did clear things up with the artist they stole from, reaching an undisclosed agreement with Antireal for the theft. While I am happy that Antireal was able to get what they believe to be adequate restitution for the offense, it feels imperative to remind people that this is not Bungie’s first plagiarism rodeo, as the developer has been credibly accused of — and even admitted to — similar offenses for assets related to its other title, Destiny 2.
In 2021, Twitter user Relay314 pointed out that Bungie stole their fan art and used it as part of a trailer. Bungie community manager Cozmo apologized for the incident, claimed it was accidental, and properly credited the artist for the work — only after being called out for the theft, of course.
In June 2023, Bungie once again stole an artist's work, making slight alterations and passing it off as their own in a cutscene in Destiny 2. The team behind Destiny 2 once again apologized, issuing the following statement:"We've discovered that an external vendor that helped to create this cutscene mistakenly used this art as a reference, assuming it was official Bungie art. We have reached out to the artist to apologize for the mix-up and to credit and compensate them for their awesome work."
This would not be the last Destiny-related accusation, either. On September 11, 2024, Twitter user and artist @Tofu_Rabbit noted that Bungie directly lifted from a commission they did back in 2015. Bungie was once again forced to come to terms with the artist for the theft, but was once again only willing to do so after being called out on Twitter. In that same thread, Reid Southern (@Rahil) also stated their work was “ripped off”, though Bungie has thus far been silent on this one.
Sift through these accusations and subsequent apologies, and a throughline quickly reveals itself — the plagiarism was someone else’s fault, and it was an accident. This line doesn't quite make sense to me, given the frequency and blatancy of the theft. One reference element accidentally making it into your product unchanged is bad enough, but the continued inclusion of lifted assets and lightly altered pieces finding their way into finished products speaks to more than just contractor negligence — it’s a pattern that shows a complete lack of care and respect from Bungie.
Despite these frequent offenses, Bungie has largely been let off the hook. As long as the Destiny expansions are good and the new game is fun, many are quick to forgive the shady business. I made a Bluesky post asking if people simply forgot about the plagiarism, and was quickly reminded by multiple people that, no, people did not forget — they just don't care.
A few examples of the plagiarism accusations against Bungie.
And while it is true that, in most of these known cases, Bungie has reached an agreement with the offended artists ex post facto, that is not the same thing as the plagiarism never having taken place at all. Hand-waving Bungie’s malice as having been “resolved” does not engender confidence in the company’s ability to produce works of art that are original, well-considered, or otherwise not stolen.
It has led me to wonder — would these same people be so forgiving if this theft were done by an AI or smaller creator/creative team? Would those who are currently playing and praising Bungie for Marathon’s art extend those same courtesies to nobodies who had been caught, time after time, of stealing the work of others in the making of their own? If a writer stole a work, made hundreds of millions on that stolen work, and then paid out a pittance to the original writer or merely mentioned them in the credits, would this be enough to repair the thief's reputation? I am inclined to think not.
For all the (rightful) railing against the theft of creative works by Generative AI (and its now frequent commercial implementations), so little of that same energy is put toward the large conglomerates that do the same thing. Writers and other creatives are among the most vocal of all groups when it comes to advocacy against the use and inclusion of plagiarized AI works, but so many of my games writer peers can be found playing the Marathon beta, praising its art specifically. Is that not hypocritical? Or does the personalized nature of said theft make it less meaningful?
If a writer stole a work, made hundreds of millions on that stolen work, and then paid out a pittance to the original writer or merely mentioned them in the credits, would this be enough to repair the thief's reputation? I am inclined to think not.
It has been said ad nauseam that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. It’s a nice little slogan that allows us to excuse our excesses, collapsing any distinctions one might make between ethical quandaries into a single bucket of “all bad.” But if it is true that all products are the direct result of worker exploitation, then doesn't that also mean the lines we draw are even more important? Surely we can come to understand the difference between a company like Constellis, a military contractor whose list of offenses includes murdering civilians, and another company like Arizona Beverages USA, whose most notable offense is falsely labeling their products as “all-natural”.
Yes, I am willing to concede that labor conditions both within the United States and abroad mean that most people are not fairly compensated for their work, and that most are significantly harmed by the economic systems and institutions that surround us all. What I am not willing to concede is that such a truth means we should not fight against such exploitation, or that all exploitative acts are equal. Throwing my hands up to say it's all bad and subsequently forgiving all injuries is a type of defeatist, loser-baby attitude that I will not personally abide.
That said, Bungie is not Constellis, nor is it Shell or any other major company with a laundry list of horrific offenses. It is simply a company that continues to steal work from other artists to elevate its own products. I’m not even telling you that you must stop playing Bungie games (especially when your work relies upon it), or to stop appreciating the artistry behind the things they do create — we all have our own lines in the sand. But don't tell me not to care, and don’t imply that the plagiarism never happened just because Bungie was held to some account for it.