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 art theft by an independent artist in relation to Marathon, the community is buzzing with speculation about the studio's future.

Last week's accusation led to an "immediate investigation" and an acknowledgment from Bungie that a "former Bungie artist" had used Fern Hook's artwork without permission or credit. This revelation was followed by a tense livestream apology from Marathon game director Joe Ziegler and art director Joe Cross. The livestream, devoid of any Marathon art or footage, highlighted the team's ongoing effort to "scrub all of our assets" in response to the situation.

"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," suggested one player. "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."

"I think it releases to a very lukewarm reception, similar to the Destiny expansion in July," hypothesized another. "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."

"We have no way of knowing, and after the Concord situation, I’m sure Sony isn’t taking any of this lightly," reminded someone else. The "Concord situation" refers to Firewalk Studios' online hero shooter, which was infamously pulled from sale less than two weeks after launch last year. Its launch was disastrous, with analysts telling IGN it has likely sold as few as 25,000 units. It debuted to a low 697 peak concurrent players on Steam, which made the 12,786 players of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League — dubbed a disappointment by Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav — look impressive by comparison.

Marathon - Gameplay Screenshots

View 14 ImagesIn a different thread, a fan reflected on Destiny lore YouTuber My Name is Byf's excellent video summary of the situation, saying: "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."

Not all potential players are deterred by the controversy, however.

"Ima be real I’m excited for this game. All this art drama is way overblown," said one. "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."

"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," replied another. "Basically the same principal [sic] 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."

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