In May of last year, Bungie and its newly released title, Marathon, were embroiled in a plagiarism scandal. Artist 4nt1r34l, real name Fern Hook, shared several examples of his work that was stolen and used in an early version of the new extraction shooter.
Bungie quickly apologized, but fear that the game would fail demoralized the studio, and all marketing was subsequently pulled.
It seems, though, that now that the game has been released, all's well that ends well, with 4nt1r34l appearing in Marathon's credits as a visual design consultant.
Appearing in the marathon credits, the heist gets a happy ending
Ehud Kurzweil noticed 4nt1r34l's appearance in Marathon's credits and shared it on Bluesky. Their names appear on all of the game's other artists, with Hook serving as its only visual design consultant.
Hook's work was created in 2017, before being added to the 2025 Marathon alpha test. While she previously said that she “didn't have the resources or energy to pursue it legally,” Bungie revealed that it had gotten off the hook, and that it was “committed to doing it right by the artist.” To the credit of this inclusion, and hopefully some fair compensation, Bungie is staying true to its word.
Usually, a game's credits tend to be a bit of a bone of contention, with developers regularly being left out for various reasons. Last year, Battlefield 6 failed to credit the studio that had started work on the game before it was shut down, and Mario Kart World's credit went to Mario's creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, much to the confusion of many fans.
On the other hand, Obsidian got things right in the credits of The Outer Worlds 2, which included an insect called Wolverine in its credits, which was part of a very specific, now very funny inside joke.
- issued
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Juvenile/animated blood, language, violence, in-game purchases, user interaction
- Multiplayer
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Online multiplayer, online co-op
