Bungie's new work "Lost Starship: Marathon" was originally responsible for Sony PlayStation's commitment to enter the real-time service game, but this game has recently been caught in a plagiarism storm, which has made the real-time service game that was frustrated from the beginning worse.Recently, reports pointed out that the Marathon is at risk of delaying the vote.

Forbes quoted sources as saying that Sony and Bungie are considering resolving the plagiarism storm through legal means.This also affected the morale of the development team and raised concerns about the future of Bungie in the post-Marathon era.Developers are worried that their latest multiplayer game will face the worst outcome if it fails to make a sensation in the current market.

It is reported that negotiations between Bungie and Sony may be in progress on the delay, which will further exacerbate tensions between the two sides.While Bungie still hopes to launch the game this year, this goal seems difficult to achieve in the current environment.

The recent controversy in Marathon stems from artist Antireal's discovery that Bungie used her 2017 design in the game without her consent.Bungie later admitted that these materials are indeed part of the game, which led to the above situation.Ultimately, Sony is now facing a difficult decision: to postpone the release of its most ambitious online service game.

Forbes report summary:

Art plagiarism incident

Bungie blamed the incident on plagiarism by a former employee in 2020 and explained it to internal employees

Sony and Bungie's legal departments are dealing with this matter, but the asset review (checking whether art resources involve more plagiarism) process is cumbersome and it is difficult to make new progress in the short term.

The complexity of the censorship has resulted in Bungie not showing any game clips in the recent livestream, possibly due to the need to "clean up" the affected art assets.

Internal morale

The morale of Bungie's entire company "cliff-like decline" and the team atmosphere reached a historical low.Employees are generally worried that if the Marathon fails, the studio may face serious consequences and even endanger its existence.

Release plan adjustments

There is no public announcement of the September release date, but Sony and Bungie executives may discuss the possibility of the extension in private, especially in the current situation of deteriorating public opinion.

The marketing plan to release a new trailer and start pre-orders in June has been cancelled, and the entire marketing plan needs to be redesigned

The whole story of the plagiarism of the "Marathon" material:

Bungie was once in a lawsuit over the bloody war plot of "Destiny 2" and the new gun design were accused of plagiarism.This time, a British artist with ID N2 (@4nt1r34l) accused on May 16 that in the closed beta of Bungie's recently released Marathon, environmental design misappropriated the design materials of her 2017 poster creation.

N2 shares multiple images, proving that Bungie uses her work without authorization and unsignature."Of course, Bungie was not obliged to hire me when he made a game that drew heavily from the design language I've polished over the past decade. But obviously, my work is excellent enough to allow them to plunder ideas for free and use them in the game."

N2 said she had no resources and energy to go through legal procedures, and she could not remember how many major companies would rather spend money to ask designers to imitate or steal her works than contact her through legitimate channels.“I have never been able to earn a stable income from this job for ten years, and I have had enough of the blood-sucking pressure from designers in large companies using my work as a ‘mood board’, and I’m still struggling to make a living,” she said.

N2's post tagged Bungie and Marathon Art Director Joseph Cross.Twelve hours later, the Bungie development team responded, saying that it was immediately launched an investigation after receiving allegations of plagiarism and confirmed that the materials were added to the game texture materials by a former Bungie artist.

Bungie said that the current art team of "Marathon" was not aware of this incident before it was exposed and is still investigating the cause of the omission.They stressed: "We attach great importance to this kind of issue and have actively contacted @4nt1r34l (N2) to discuss this matter and promised to give the artist a fair explanation."

Under Bungie policy, the development team will not use their work without the consent of the creator.To avoid similar incidents, Bungie is conducting a comprehensive review of all assets in the game, especially the aforementioned artist productions, and will implement a stricter audit mechanism to ensure that all artistic contributions are fully recorded.

Bungie said they attach great importance to artists who contribute their creativity to the game, and are committed to giving due respect and reward, and thanking the public for letting them know about this issue.

Response from friends:

Reddit netizens commented on Bungie's "Marathon" plagiarism:

It turns out that the large number of stickers and designs of "Marathon" were copied entirely from an artist on Twitter (even her name and logo were printed on the picture), and several developers, including the artistic director, are following the artist.They put the blame on "a former Bungie artist".Yesterday's live broadcast was originally intended to end the Alpha test, but it turned out to be a grand apology. They dared not show the actual game screen because they were worried that the artist's design would continue to be included in the game.

Netizen: What's worse is that Bungie has been doing this (3 plagiarisms have occurred in the past two years).This is not the first time they have done this, and I bet that as long as they are still there, this will not be the last time they have done this.