Marathon Maker’s Morale in Tatters as Art Director Forced to Admit Asset Theft in Ill-Conceived Livestream

This week has not been favorable for Marathon creator Bungie – although it seems we find ourselves writing that every few months lately.

Forbes indicates that morale at the Washington-based company is in “decline” after it was accused of copying art assets earlier this week. To the studio’s credit, they quickly recognized their mistakes and shared the measures they are implementing to remedy the situation.

As if that were not sufficient, the firm proceeded with a poorly conceived livestream, where a visibly distressed art director Joe Cross read a statement while facing criticism from the chat.

“We learned that an artist who contributed to Marathon during early pre-production appropriated several graphic elements from a designer, without consent or recognition, and incorporated them onto a decal sheet that was finalized in 2020,” he stated.

“The decal sheet contained icons and text elements. These elements inadvertently made their way into our alpha build, and there’s absolutely no justification for this oversight. We are diligently working on our review process to prevent such issues from arising again in Marathon or at Bungie.”

The studio initially intended to showcase more Marathon gameplay during the livestream, but since it could not ensure that any of the referenced problematic assets would appear in the presentation, it opted to delay the showcase. Why wouldn’t they simply cancel the entire livestream?

Forbes, referencing unnamed sources, reported that there is “chaos” within the developer presently, with numerous employees concerned that the release may not be ready for its scheduled 23rd September launch while they address the removed art.

Clearly, the game was already encountering challenges, with feedback on the alpha being, at best, mixed, and Arc Raiders seemingly overshadowing it unexpectedly.