The artist who was at the centre of a Marathon art theft scandal has been credited in the game as a Visual Design Consultant.
Less than a year ago, dev Bungie was forced to conduct a “thorough review” after it emerged assets originally created by Scottish artist Antireal, or Fern Hook, had been included in the game without credit or consultation.
In its defence, the Washington-based studio responded promptly, and the debacle was quietly resolved behind closed doors.
Antireal later released a statement on social media, clearly written by her lawyers, which read: “The Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction.”
While the terms of her compensation remain under wraps, we can see now the game is out that she is credited as a Visual Design Consultant. It’d be interesting if she ended up doing a little bit of work on the game, as her house style is obviously very consistent with the look of Marathon overall.
Either way, it’s good that there was a positive conclusion here. Things could have gotten very messy very quickly, but it seems Bungie ultimately did the right thing, and the original artist was properly compensated for the mix-up.