The Marathon art theft debacle has been ‘resolved to my satisfaction,’ according to the artist Bungie stole from

The artist whose work was stolen to develop the look of Marathon, Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter, says it’s all water under the bridge.

“The Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction,” wrote artist Antireal on X today.

Antireal tweet

(Image credit: Antireal on X)

Bungie later confirmed that Antireal’s art had been taken without permission, laying the blame on a former artist who turned in a “texture sheet that was ultimately used in-game.”

“This issue was unknown by our existing art team, and we are still reviewing how this oversight occurred. We take matters like this very seriously,” the company said in May. “We have reached out to @4nt1r34l to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist.”

1/ Dear @MarathonTheGame graphic design lovers.
It is time for me to burn some bridges.
Because thanks to @4nt1r34l daily posters stolen and put as textures in the game and many other assets utilized, you have created AntirealTheGame.
@Bungie @josephacross

— @billain.bsky.social (@billain.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-12-02T19:55:47.055Z

Considering the brevity and formal tone of Antireal’s update on the matter, it’s a fair guess that “doing right by the artist” in this case involved boardrooms, lawyers, and a fat paycheck. This is, unfortunately, a situation that Bungie has found itself in with confounding regularity—just last year, a piece of fan art somehow ended up on an official Destiny Nerf gun, and in 2023 it had to compensate an artist whose work was ‘mistakenly’ used in a Destiny 2 cutscene.

We’ve reached out to Sony for comment on the resolved dispute and will update this story if we receive a reply.

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