The plagiarism controversy around Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter Marathon has exploded.
We reported last week that Bungie was quick to acknowledge the clear plagiarism and promised to do good by the artist, member of art collective antireal fern hook. However, what we didn’t realize at the time was that artists were litigating the extent and gravity of the issue. As Twitter user rosoddle resurfaced, Bungie has an ongoing track record for art plagiarism in Destiny 2 since 2017.
Bungie went ahead with a scheduled livestream where they addressed the issue head on. Art director Joseph Cross mostly repeated the same message Bungie share in the Marathon Dev Twitter account, and gave a person apology to fern. However, this apology was not accepted by the Marathon and Bungie fandom in general. As things stand, many fans have sworn off buying the game.
As reported by Paul Tassi for Forbes, the word from inside Bungie is also negative. In his words, morale is in free-fall as the developers are worried that Marathon will bomb. Bungie employees were also told a former artist was responsible for the theft. Sony and Bungie are now doing a sweeping check to see if more of Marathon’s assets could be subject to plagiarism claims.
Tassi didn’t hear of any plans to delay the game, which many fans and games press are openly suggesting online. Of course, that idea is a two-edged sword – as Sony learned from Concord, some games just can’t be perpetually worked on until they can be fixed. Marathon may be at the point where Sony and Bungie can’t afford to keep spending more on extended development for it, and cancelling is also no longer an option.
Tassi was told some things have been delayed or at least halted for now. Marketing for pre-orders was supposed to start this month, and a public beta was scheduled for August. That beta may be replaced by a roadmap for public playtests.
Tassi was also told that Bungie’s former management shoulder some blame for Marathon’s issues, but on a different end. They proposed this Marathon reboot five years ago, but didn’t accept input from their own devs. Those devs knew this whole time that the game needs more things, such as a PvE component, but because they weren’t allowed to add them in, Bungie now has a fully paid for title that fans find lacking.
We don’t know what will happen to Marathon now. While fans are calling for a delay, we think we should accept that the game getting cancelled, followed by more layoffs, is a possibility too. Even after they compensate fern, and perhaps even get the antireal collective signed up to work on the game, other issues with Marathon might not be enough to turn it around.
Sony cancelling a second live service game a second year in a row won’t just be embarrassing, and gristle for console wars. It’ll be a disaster for PlayStation and Bungie, with both monetary and human costs. We can appreciate that Bungie and Sony don’t have any good options at the moment, and we can only hope they find a way to turn things around.
