Bungie Initiates Internal Probe Amid Art Theft Accusations

Oh, man. So here’s the scoop—Bungie, the game developer, right? Turns out, they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They confirmed, yep, some of their art for this new game, Marathon, was—how do I put it?—borrowed without asking. And by “borrowed,” I mean swiped.

So, what happened was, Fern Hook, or as she’s known on the wild web, 4nt1r34l, noticed something a bit fishy. She took to Twitter—because where else do we air grievances these days?—and laid down some comparisons. And, oh boy, it sure looks like Bungie might’ve helped themselves to her art from, like, 2017.

Her words kinda sting, right? She’s talking about how Bungie’s not obliged to hire her, even though her design vibe, she feels, pretty much shaped what they went for in Marathon. Yet here they are, using her stuff without so much as a, “Hey, thanks, Fern.”

Bungie’s response? Drumroll, please—they say the artist responsible for this, uh, mix-up doesn’t work there anymore. Now, I don’t know about you, but sounds like a convenient out, right? Anyway, they dug into this problem and figured out one of their former artists snuck this art into the game. Like, how does this even happen?

They swear up and down that they take things like this super seriously. They’ve reached out to Fern—because obviously—and they’re determined to make this right, whatever that means. Seems they’re also double-checking everything that sneaky artist did and putting in some new rules to catch this kind of thing in the future. Kind of like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, but I guess better late than never?

And that’s where we’re at. Bungie wants everyone to know they really care about their artists. They’re all about that creative spirit, apparently. Just, you know, don’t take stuff without asking, guys.