10 Times Video Games STOLE From Fans
6. Marathon – When Bungie Ran with the Wrong Art
Marathon is meant to be Bungie’s triumphant extraction shooter comeback, a moody, sci-fi reboot of their beloved 1990s FPS. Instead, the game tripped over its own concept art - before it even released.
Shortly after alpha footage was revealed in May 2025, Scottish artist Fern "Antireal" Hook noticed an alarming number of assets that seemed to be lifted directly from her 2017 cyberpunk poster work - everything from the word "ALEPH" to recurring symbols and design motifs.
Side-by-side comparisons went viral. Bungie confirmed the issue quickly, blaming an unnamed “former artist” for submitting the work without proper attribution. They paused development, promised an internal review, and reportedly reached out to Antireal directly to "make things right."
It wasn’t the studio’s first brush with this kind of controversy. For fans, it felt like a pattern - especially when paired with a previous Destiny 2 misstep (as mentioned earlier). The optics of a billion-dollar studio accidentally ripping off indie artists twice in two years? Not great.
To Bungie’s credit, they owned up and took immediate steps to rectify the situation. But when your game’s name is Marathon, you probably don’t want to start the race by faceplanting into someone else’s art portfolio.