Bungie's Marathon is in deep trouble

When Paul Tassi—a longtime Bungie observer who has covered Destiny for years—declares a Bungie game is "done," it carries weight. And that's exactly what happened with Marathon, Bungie's upcoming extraction shooter. The game's closed alpha launched to a tepid reception, and then things got worse: Bungie was caught lifting artwork from independent artists without permission, credit, or payment. This isn't the first time. It's the fourth documented instance since 2021. And for Asmongold, who played the alpha himself, the conclusion is blunt: Marathon is "one step removed from Concord."

A pattern of plagiarism

The plagiarism allegations against Bungie aren't vague or isolated. In 2021, for Destiny 2's Witch Queen expansion, the studio used fan art of the character Zavala one-for-one without permission. In 2022, artist Julian Felona's work was lifted and used inside another expansion. In 2024, Bungie collaborated with Hasbro on a Nerf replica of the Ace of Spades pistol and copied the entire design from artist Tofu Rabbit. And now in 2025, artist Anti-Reel (who runs the design studio Anti-Reel and Lead Speak) caught Bungie using their poster designs as environmental assets in Marathon's alpha. The artist posted side-by-side comparisons on Twitter and wrote: "The Marathon Alpha released recently and its environments are covered with asset