Marathon ‘stolen art’ dispute now resolved, artist confirms

Earlier this year, following a publicly playable alpha test, Bungie was forced to delay Marathon after an artist noticed that their work had been included in the game uncredited. Now months later and seemingly ahead of Marathon's re-reveal, the artist has confirmed that the dispute has been resolved.

In an update shared on social media, the artist, who goes by the online handle @4nt1r34l, confirmed that “the Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction”. The statement doesn't reveal any more than that, but we would assume that the artist got paid.

Bungie spent several months over the summer removing the offending assets from Marathon and only just recently resumed playtesting. With this dispute now resolved and the new assets implemented in the game, Bungie should be free to finally show Marathon publicly again.

Marathon is expected to launch in early 2026, though an exact date is not yet known. Bungie could make some announcements before the end of the month, perhaps around The Game Awards on December 11th.

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KitGuru Says: Bungie can now move on from this fiasco. Chances are, the agreement between the artist and Bungie included an NDA and likely included a clause to announce publicly that the dispute is resolved, so we'll never know the true details of what was discussed behind closed doors, or how the stolen assets made their way into the game. 

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