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Bungie appears to have extensively plagiarized an artist's work in their extraction shooter "Marathon" according to this Bluesky post (bsky.app)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml to c/games@lemmy.world

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Bungie has issued an official statement, they are throwing an artist under the bus and pledging to make it right with the original artist.

This is a developing story.

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[-] Redecco@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's definitely a really bad look, but I can imagine how it could have happened.

A former artist or even an outsourced artist probably delivered them a texture sheet of graphics, nobody caught that several of the graphics were plaigerized, the artist never mentioned it, assumed it was purely for a blockout or temporary, maybe they used it during a mood boarding/visual development stage and it got pushed along the pipeline.

Trying to reverse search graphics your artists make for you would probably not be done in the good faith sense, if there wasn't suspicion that it wasn't original anyways? But happening four times seems like a reason to really crack down on that kind of thing for the future ... Bungies management has also constantly had issues too.

Artists use photobashing all the time to develop concepts since timelines push design work faster and faster. Photobashing other artists work is usually an issue but taking images or conepts within creative liberties through sufficient alteration or "transformative" use is typically the move if it was ever done.

I'd call it a management issue. Probably bad oversight of outsourcing, or maybe internally disorganized production. Also text and graphics seems like they'd probably have vetted the designs and someone really tried to pass it off without raising attention somehow ... So I'm guessing outsourced and not an internal employee? Idk.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

It's wild that you dorks will up vote preemptive excuse making just because someone took a pleasant tone.

[-] DaedalousIlios@pawb.social 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Man, as somebody who grew up with Halo, it's really depressing to see how they seem to just be utterly incapable of an original thought anymore.

[-] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 12 points 2 days ago

I mean is there even a simgle person still working on bungie that was somehow related to the good halos?

[-] DaedalousIlios@pawb.social 2 points 2 days ago

I don't think that matters. This is likely a decision handed down by upper management. And that's what makes it depressing; what could've continued to be some of the greatest creators of Sci-Fi video games instead have mismanaged their talent and shot both their feet off.

[-] Pnut@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

The blind leading the eagle-eyed.

[-] JakenVeina@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

Is the BlueSky OP here not a native English speaker? Cause, BOY that was tough to follow.

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 101 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Why did they have to copy anything?!

BUNGIE LITERALLY ALREADY MADE MARATHON

[-] pno2nr@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah but that Marathon was innovative, looked good, and was fun to play. That would never work in this day and age. Also I think the only thing that same about the two is the name.

[-] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 61 points 2 days ago

This new game has essentially no relation besides name and logo to the old Marathon games. Sadly, because the old ones were the shit.

[-] Geetnerd@lemmy.world 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

How dare you.

I loved the Marathon games. They were better than Doom!

Edit; My bad, I thought you said they "Were shit," instead of "The shit."

My bad. Carry on.

[-] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 18 points 2 days ago

It's okay, 'the shit' is a weird phrase anyway. And as a Marathon trilogy connoisseur, you're clearly alright.

[-] JordanZ@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

This just reminds me of this guy…who also has one about the word ‘ass’.

https://youtu.be/igh9iO5BxBo

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[-] Geetnerd@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Yeah, it's a weird phrase, today. It was popular 20 years ago.

It meant "The best" back then.

But thanks for the positive vibe, and comment.

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[-] tuckerm@feddit.online 27 points 2 days ago

Calling this a Marathon game makes no sense, and I don't just mean aesthetically. The business case can't possibly be there, either.

Anyone who has a nostalgic attachment to Marathon (👋) won't be interested in this new game, and anyone interested in this new game probably doesn't care about the name "Marathon."

On top of that, there's the fact that Marathon kind of looked like Halo. When Bungie made Halo, they were clearly taking after their own art style from their previous games. Which means Bungie could have announced that they're making a singleplayer first person shooter that kind of looks like Halo. Everyone would have lost their minds. Instead, they announced yet another live service game, and no one is interested.

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Well now I’m not buying it.

[-] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Its worse than that: this game is somehow CANON with the original Marathon

[-] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

My vent core feels retroactively unblasted by this revelation. You really can't expect anything good from any of the major studios anymore these days.

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[-] audaxdreik@pawb.social 43 points 2 days ago

It's hilariously awful because, as a fan of the original Marathon trilogy, the aesthetic of the new game is the only thing that appealed to me; and it was stolen.

I have no interest in an extraction shooter. You can make an extraction shooter if you want, but you gotta make something that players can get emotionally invested in first. Original Marathon players won't recognize this and new players won't care so what was the fucking point of any of this, I'm going crazy. This industry has lost all direction

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

I was hoping it was gonna be a clever, fun story shooter like the original. But it just sounds like a reskinned Helldivers with no connection to the original besides the name.

Luckily classic Marathon is available on Steam for free.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

OK, criticism is fine, but reskined Helldivers? It's nothing like Helldivers. It's an extraction shooter, with a focus on PvP.

I guess Helldivers is a shooter where you extract, but it isn't an extraction shooter. Extraction shooters are like Escape from Tarkov, Gray Zone, and the upcoming ARC Raiders. They're about entering a game with items, collecting loot, and leaving. If you die you lose everything you brought. Nothing like Helldivers.

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

That makes even less sense to me. Nothing in the original game is about collecting resources or leaving the ship

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Nope. I don't really know why they decided to do this, but it does use the existing lore. The Phor are going to be involved, and a bunch of other Marathon stuff is going to be used. It's almost the exact opposite game mode of what Marathon was though.

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago

I think it’s because a game with challenging puzzles and compelling story takes work and talent and a game that says “collect 20 widgets and get back to the extraction point” can be churned out like cheap hot dogs by overworked devs.

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[-] Geetnerd@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

I played the original games, on a Performa 6100 Mac, back in the day!

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[-] Taleya@aussie.zone 4 points 2 days ago

Legit, i only clicked this because i was "wait wtf? system 7 marathon??"

[-] CorneliusTalmadge@lemmy.world 73 points 2 days ago

They just trained their employees using other people’s copyrighted works. What’s the problem?

[-] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The implication that generative AI would spit out pixel-for-pixel copies from its training data is flat out wrong. Even generative AI would have made more original assets than what Bungie put in Marathon. The worst part is that this is like the 4th time they've been caught doing this.

Being inspired by an art style and using that style is fine, and completely normal. Thats how art works. But copying and pasting 1 for 1 is not fine.

[-] theblips@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

I agree but it can get pretty close. Try asking gpt-4o to generate a realistic picture of an adventure who wears a hat and wields a whip to find lost treasure. It returns basically a picture of Harrison Ford

[-] blinx615@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

"basically" != "pixel-for-pixel"

[-] Fredthefishlord 5 points 1 day ago

Pixel for pixel is not the requirement to be a copyright violation, just fyi

[-] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

No, but the point is that the included examples are pixel-for-pixel, meaning they were almost certainly copy-pasted by a human, rather than generated.

[-] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago

There's nothing wrong with inspiration (attribution is nice), but what's evident is they straight up LIFTED parts of antireal's art into in-game assets.

[-] mishielda1234@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

This is something Sam Altman would say

[-] peanuts4life 73 points 2 days ago

The lead art director of marathon has followed her since before the game began development and he still stole her shit wholesale. Disgusting.

[-] secret300@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 2 days ago

How is Bungie still in business? I loved destiny but after a while of them being so hostile and anti-consumer I just left. Fuck Bungie and fuck whoever works for those ass hats

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 42 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Bungie had similar problems with Destiny 2, if I remember correctly.

Bungie commented on the current issue an hour ago.

[-] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 36 points 2 days ago

Love the response. Very CYA and they're called out on it by multiple people:

‪hi, tell legal to reply to my email from months ago.

i simply can’t believe you’re thanking anyone “for bringing this to our attention” just because it went viral.

what about all the times i’ve directly contacted you privately about using my work? why should i have to hurt your brand to be heard?

So, we had some unknown outsource companies at fault for plagiarizing previously and now unknown former empleyee? How convenient! Surely the fact that art director and other marathon artists follow her means nothing.

I really wish i could buy that this was actually just an overeager artist who got laid off to pay for pete parsons' 80th classic car but not only is this the 4th time this has happened, joseph cross was following and clearly aware of antireal. yall knew and fully intended on getting away with it

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 16 points 2 days ago

Honestly, at this point the company should be dismantled and the leadership thrown in prison. These corporate edgelords wont learn. They will just overstep, inch by inch and the courts will understate their deeds over and over until there is only one company that rules the world and sell you your fucking liver by the minute.

Dismantle this pile of shit.