Fern “Antireal” Hook, an artist who found her own designs and artwork at Bungie’s Marathonconfirmed that it had “resolved” the issue with the studio and its parent company, Sony.
In miniature update Hook wrote on X/Twitter: “The Marathon graphical issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction.” She did not provide details of a possible settlement.
Destiny 2 developer Bungie in May, she faced accusations of plagiarism after Hook accused the studio of tweaking aspects of its graphics for its upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon. In screenshots taken from Marathon’s alpha tests attached to the tweet, Hook claimed to see various icons and graphics she had designed, some of which were originally was shared on social media many years ago in 2017.
Bungie is of course under no obligation to hire me to create a game that draws heavily from the same design language I’ve been honing over the past decade, but apparently my work was good enough to steal ideas and plaster the entire game without compensation or credits. pic.twitter.com/G3FbPtbPJD
— N² (@4nt1r34l) May 15, 2025
Marathon game director Joe Ziegler and art director Joe Cross soon followed apologized for the painfully inconvenient live broadcast, which did not contain any graphics or footage from the Marathon, as the team “continued to scrub down all of our assets to make sure we were respecting the situation.” The studio launched an “immediate investigation,” ultimately confirming that a “former Bungie artist” had indeed used Fern Hook’s work without compensation or credit.
And then, of course, The marathon was delayed in 2026 as Bungie worked to respond to test feedback. Things were going very smoothly until Marathon reappeared in Octoberwhen Bungie announced that the extraction shooter is ready for a restricted playtest available exclusively to North American and European players on PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam.
However, the issue of art still casts a shadow. Last month, the director of the leaked miniature film Marathon expressed his disbelief that he I felt compelled to come out and defend this work as “not AI”.
The marathon has certainly gone through a arduous development and experienced many delays. There is pressure for Marathon to succeed amid the high-profile struggles of Destiny 2. Earlier this month, parent company Sony said Bungie had failed to meet its sales and user engagement goals, prompting a $200 million impairment charge.
Vikki Blake is an IGN reporter, critic, columnist and consultant with over 15 years of experience working with some of the world’s largest gaming sites and publications. She is also a Guardian, a Spartan, a Silent Hillian, a Legend, and an eternally High Chaos. Find her on Blue Sky.
