Earlier this year, Bungie faced accusations that some of the in-game assets for its upcoming live-service shooter, Marathon, were stolen from poster designs published in 2017 by Scottish artist Fern Hook. Today, Hook shared an update on the case through social media: “The Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction.”
Hook hasn’t shared the precise details or process that led to the case’s conclusion.
To Bungie’s credit, the company was swift in its response to the alleged plagiarism, later even acknowledging that art had indeed been lifted from 2017 poster designs by Hook. At the time, Bungie art director Joseph Cross said the stolen graphic elements were brought onto the project by a designer “in the early stages of pre-production”. Cross admits this was done without the permission or acknowledgment of the original artist.
