Latest news with #ANTIREAL
Forbes
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
New ‘Marathon' Info: Bungie Morale, Launch Worries And Changing Plans
Marathon Chaos has engulfed Bungie after an artist, ANTIREAL, came forward to accuse Bungie of ripping off her 2017 work as its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon was starting to take shape as early as 2018. Bungie admitted to the plagiarism, supposedly the work of one ex-artist, and promised to make things right, but the story gained traction among gaming outlets and reaction streamers alike, and it's poisoned the previous positive conversation about the aesthetic of the game. But all of this is happening after another not-great time period for Marathon in the last few weeks, starting with the gameplay reveal and then its Closed Alpha, both of which received mostly mixed-to-negative feedback. A livestream on Friday addressed both the art plagiarism and Alpha feedback in what ended up being the most uncomfortable on-camera offerings I've ever seen from the studio. I've spoken to some current and former employees about Bungie's excuse for the art theft, studio morale, the possibility of a delay and some very real changes when it comes to the upcoming presentation and playtesting of the game. Here's what I've learned: Marathon Some changes to future plans had been made even before this new plagiarism development. Mainly as a reaction to gameplay footage and now the Closed Alpha. All of this, between necessary asset auditing, a reworked marketing campaign and shifting playtest plans, screams of a game that is not coming out in four months, or at the very least, shouldn't be, though there are no indicators of that yet. However, at this point it may be the case that another 3, 6, 12 months would not fix what ails the game, which is more than just presentation and some playtesting, but for many, its questionable core concept wrapped in extremely cool aesthetics. But now they've lost that last bit as a praise point as well. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Hindustan Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Who is Joseph Cross, Marathon director addresses Bungie art theft accusations
A major plagiarism controversy surfaced online recently involving Joseph Cross, the Franchise Art Director for Bungie's upcoming game "Marathon". It has been alleged that the game used digital artwork by an independent artist without authorization during the build. Joseph Cross is a seasoned art director, who has been closely working with the entertainment and gaming industry for more than a decade. He is currently based in Seattle, Washington. He has held the position of Franchise Art Director for the upcoming game since 2019. ALSO READ | New update on 'Bird wing' solar eruption that could hit Earth Before taking over this responsibility, he had worked as a Lead Concept Artist for Bungie till 2019. He has worked on a ton of games and films, where his expertise and concept mattered immensely. The likes include popular Hollywood films like Dune, Kong: Skull Island, Ghost in the Shell, Deadpool 2, along with popular games like Destiny and Dead Space. Joseph Cross has now publicly addressed the ongoing plagiarism controversy surrounding Bungie's upcoming game Marathon. It was alleged that the game used artwork from an independent digital artist 4nt1r34l (ANTIREAL), without authorization. During a PlayMA developer livestream, Cross confirmed that an artist who was working for the building of the game indeed used Antireal's work without authorization. During the livestream, Cross was quoted as saying, "There's absolutely no excuse for this oversight. We've reached out to ANTIREAL, the artist in question, and followed up to ensure that we do right by this artist." Following this incident, the gaming company is auditing all its assets where the internal artist had contributed. Cross also confirmed that there has been some delay in the progress of the game due to this fiasco. In case any irregularity is found in the audit, Cross affirmed that they will be taken care of, eliminated, or recreated in-house.
Forbes
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Bungie Stealing ‘Marathon' Art Is Probably The Last Straw
Destiny 2 Marathon developer Bungie has been accused of, and has now admitted to, stealing artwork used in the current build of Marathon from an artist who first published the work in 2017. That artist is ANTIREAL, who posted several comparisons of her work and existing Bungie Marathon assets which go far beyond 'inspiration' and often are direct 1:1 lifts of images, words, symbols and even ANTIREAL's own personal logo. One of her statements: Within a matter of hours as this began to spread virally, Bungie issued a statement saying it was a 'former Bungie artist' who included the decals in a 'texture sheet' that ultimately went into the game. The issue was supposedly unknown by the 'existing art team' but obviously many, many questions have been raised about all this as Bungie continues to investigate. Asset rips There is no disputing the asset rips. They are 1:1 in many, many cases that are clear to see. The result of that, if Bungie will simply cut the artist a check and credit them, is unclear. It is possible that legal action could be pursued here but the artist did not seem to think they had the resources to mount the campaign. That could change, given the attention that this story has now gotten. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder However, there are now larger questions being raised about ANTIREAL and Marathon's overall aesthetic. Looking at the image gallery of their work, the 'design language' the artist mentions could easily be early concept are for Marathon designs if you didn't know any better, from the images themselves to even the color palette. It is true that this artist did not invent an entire genre of art, but even across well-known cyberpunk influences in media, I have yet to see anything this close to the gap between this work and Marathon. And obviously there were directly pieces lifted straight from it, so Bungie had its eye on it in some capacity. An additional wrinkle is that it's been discovered several Bungie employees had been following the account, including game's current art director who followed her 'for years' she said without any communication from him or anyone else at Bungie. Her work went up in 2017 and by most accounts Marathon started development around 2018 in some capacity. Taking a 'vibe' as opposed to exact pieces is harder, if not impossible to prove, but in this case perception is quickly becoming reality and the narrative is hardening. Marathon, among many criticisms, always at least had its unique art style and aesthetic as a bright spot. Now, it's going to be impossible to bring it up in the future without this plagiarism being referenced. And even if it is just a handful of assets that were ripped, it will be very hard to get around the theory that a lot of the initial, conceptual aesthetic was directly from this one artist. Ripped assets I believe it is too early to start naming and blaming specific individuals within Bungie, but the studio will need to do an intense investigation into this and come out with a lengthy explanation in addition to the terms they've come to with the artist, publicly. And they may promise this will not happen in the future but it has now happened four times in the past four years, the others with Destiny fan art that was lifted in some capacity for the game or in merchandise. That was third party contractors, however, and this is Bungie in-house. Or former in-house. Or whatever you want to believe. I have had serious doubts about Marathon's ultimate viability in the PvP/extraction shooter market for a while now, and doubly so after an underwhelming Closed Alpha a few weeks back. But to lose the one point of pride about how cool the design work and aesthetic is, and this perception now seemingly etched in stone, it feels almost back-breaking. It is certainly true there are dozens if not hundreds of artists who have worked on Marathon and have nothing to do with this at all, producing their own original work. But the well is now poisoned. Marathon is supposed to have a ride-a-long Alpha feedback session with game director Joe Ziegler today, which was already moved once and it's a little hard to imagine that's not going to be overwhelmed by this story, and I can only imagine what chat will be like. So we will see if it's moved again. Marathon The game itself also seems troubled in a number of different ways, and I've said in the past that it felt like a delay was necessary. Yes, Marathon started development in 2018 but the current version after huge overhauls is barely two years old. And it feels like it. But even conceptually, I cannot get behind the idea that this hero-based extraction shooter is going to do especially well in the end, and that's even before its aesthetic no longer seems that cool after all. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
