Bungie Faces Existential Crisis Amid Plagiarism Scandal, Fans Debate Studio's Future

As the developer of Destiny 2, Bungie, grapples with the fallout from another accusation of using an independent artist's work without permission in their upcoming game Marathon, the community surrounding the studio is left pondering the future. Last week's allegations led to an "immediate investigation" and a subsequent acknowledgment from Bungie that a "former Bungie artist" had indeed utilized Fern Hook's artwork without proper compensation or credit.

In a tense Friday night livestream, Marathon's game director Joe Ziegler and art director Joe Cross issued an apology. Notably absent from the stream were any visuals or footage from Marathon itself, as the team is "still scrubbing all of our assets to make sure that we are being respectful of the situation."

Since the apology, the community has been abuzz, attempting to identify the mysterious "former artist" and expressing a range of emotions, with some players feeling "just feel hollow". The controversy has led to speculation about Marathon's potential success, with some questioning whether the game can recover and what a failure might mean for Bungie.

One player suggested, "The game went from mixed/negative reception to PLAGIARISM_WILL_MAKE_ME_GOD, four months from launch in the eyes of the larger gaming community. If they don't delay it, it's 100% DOA. If the game does in fact die, we're talking over $100 million+ lost (probably a gross underestimate for a AAA game/studio). So yeah, really bad. Make no mistake, this is an existential struggle for Bungie at this point."

Another player hypothesized, "I think it releases to a very lukewarm reception, similar to the Destiny expansion in July. It will last til January for active updates, put in maintenance mode til about summer 2026, then shut down with Bungie finally absorbed into Sony."

A third player reminded the community of the Concord situation, where Firewalk Studios' online hero shooter was pulled from sale less than two weeks after its disastrous launch last year. Analysts reported to IGN that Concord likely sold only about 25,000 units, with a peak of 697 concurrent players on Steam, a number dwarfed by the 12,786 players of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which was dubbed a disappointment by Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav.

Marathon - Gameplay Screenshots

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In a different thread, a fan reflected on Destiny lore YouTuber My Name is Byf's excellent video summary of the situation, expressing concern for the unrelated employees at Bungie who might be affected if the studio faces dire consequences. The fan voiced a desire for Bungie to make amends to the independent artist Antireal, to take steps to prevent future occurrences, and to regain the goodwill needed to make Marathon a success.

Not all potential players are deterred by the controversy. One said, "Ima be real I’m excited for this game. All this art drama is way overblown. I think from what I’ve gathered in this game I fully anticipate the aliens to inevitably make their way into the game. Other than that I’d like the characters to be customizable but I anticipate any big changes like that to come later. Very hyped for Marathon."

Another replied, "I can't remember who exactly, but it was a famous musician talking about how he would never copyright others' music because all music eventually comes back to the same source. Basically the same principal every artist has been inspired by some other artists and so on and so forth. Of course, it's not cool to blatantly just copy/paste someone's work, but then again, even the concept of completely original art is debatable. Especially since there are recorded cases of people making basically the same art around the same time as someone else. So yeah, it's pretty overblown."

A supportive message added, "For any Bungie employees checking in here, please remember that you have millions of fans that want to see Marathon succeed." Forbes has reported that the studio is currently in "chaos," with morale at an all-time low. Marathon is scheduled to launch on September 23 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S.