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

As Destiny 2 developer Bungie scrambles to recover its reputation following yet another accusation of using an independent artist's work without permission in Marathon, the community surrounding the studio is left wondering about the future. The recent allegations against a "former Bungie artist" for using Fern Hook's artwork without credit or compensation led to an immediate investigation and acknowledgment from the studio.

In a notably uncomfortable livestream on Friday night, Marathon game director Joe Ziegler and art director Joe Cross issued an apology. The stream notably lacked any Marathon art or footage, as the team is "still scrubbing all of our assets to make sure that we are being respectful of the situation."

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 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 about the "Concord situation" involving Firewalk Studios' online hero shooter, which was infamously pulled from sale less than two weeks after launch last year. The game's launch was disastrous, with analysts telling IGN it has likely sold as few as 25,000 units. It debuted to a mere 697 peak concurrent players on Steam, a figure dwarfed by the 12,786 players of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League — a game labeled a disappointment by Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav.

Marathon - Gameplay Screenshots

View 14 ImagesIn another thread, a fan reflected on Destiny lore YouTuber My Name is Byf's excellent video summary of the situation, expressing concern for the employees who might be affected if Bungie were to fail. The fan said, "watching the video just sort of reminded me that most of the people who will likely be affected if Bungie goes under are completely unrelated employees that don't deserve to be punished over this. I sort of feel ill about the whole situation now. I want to see them make an effort to [independent artist] Antireal. I want to see them take the steps towards making sure this never happens again. I want them to win back whatever they need to make this game special (Goodwill, a delay, anything). I WANT to see the Marathon ship in this artstyle, man."

However, 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 comment added, "For any Bungie employees checking in here, please remember that you have millions of fans that want to see Marathon succeed." Forbes now claims the studio is in "chaos," with morale reportedly in "free fall." Marathon is set to launch for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S on September 23.