Bungie Initiates Internal Investigation After Art Theft Allegations

Okay, so let me try and pull this together. Apparently, there’s this wild drama with Bungie — you know, the game developer folks — and something about stealing? I mean, honestly, I just stumbled across this, but it kind of grabbed me. So, they’ve confirmed, yep, some art in their new game called Marathon was uh… “borrowed” without asking. Yikes.

I guess they posted in their Discord — whatever that means — saying they’re digging deep into their game’s art, checking for other “oopsies” of this kind. This all started when an artist named Fern, or goes by “4nt1r34l” (like anti-real, maybe?) chirped about it on Twitter. She even threw up some comparison pics, and dang if it didn’t look similar. Her stuff was like from 2017, so not exactly yesterday.

She basically went, “Hey, Bungie doesn’t have to hire me just ’cause they’re vibing off my style,” which seems fair, right? But then she’s like, “But guess my art was cool enough to kinda lift? Without a thank you or a check?” Geez.

Bungie? They responded. Fast. Said the one who did it? Sorry, gone now. Their words, not mine: “investigated a concern” about some sneaky decal usage in Marathon. Somebody on their team just, alright, tossed these into the game art mix without asking. Awkward.

Their current crew? Clueless about this mix-up. How’d they miss it, you ask? Yeah, same. They’re in damage control mode, talking to 4nt1r34l, trying to mend the mess. They insist they don’t normally swipe art without a heads-up to the creator. Sure, sure.

And oh, they’re upping their game on checking assets now — especially anything touched by the ex-employee. Stricter policies and all. They shout out to artists for fueling their games with those creative juices and they’re like, not gonna let it slide under the rug! I mean, at least they’re saying they’ll keep the honor code intact. Silver lining, I guess?

Anyway, just one of those things that makes you scratch your head and go, “How’d it even get there in the first place?”