The artist whose work was used in Marathon without permission has been credited as visual design consultant

The artist whose work was used in Bungie’s Marathon without her permission or knowledge has been credited in the game.

In May 2025, Scottish artist Fern ‘4nt1r34l’ Hook accused Bungie of taking assets from her previous work and using it in the alpha for Marathon.

After investigating the allegations, Bungie later acknowledged that Hook’s claims were accurate, and claimed that a former staff member was responsible for taking her art.

The developer then pulled all gameplay footage from its following livestream, and said it was conducting a thorough review process to remove any art from the game that was “inappropriately sourced”, promising to make sure the situation didn’t happen again in the future.

Seven months later, Hook posted a brief message on her X account, simply stating: “The Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction.”

Hook didn’t make it clear at the time what the terms of the resolution were, nor was it clear whether her post on X was one of the conditions of the agreement.

Marathon was officially released on Wednesday, and – as spotted by illustrator Ehud Kurzweil on Bluesky – Hook has been credited in the game in the role of ‘visual design consultant’.

It’s not clear whether this means Hook was consulted further on the game’s art style and paid for her time, but it does perhaps shed more light on comments made by art director Joseph Cross, who stated last year that the studio had reached out to Hook to apologise and make sure they “do right” by her, without sharing specific details on how it planned to do so.

“Personally I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for artists working independently, producing, making a living, doing commercial or fine art,” Cross said at the time. “We’ve worked with many of them. It’s one of my favourite parts of the job, to make those connections, create content, and collaborate.

“So to that extent, I want to send my personal apology to 4nt1r34l, whose work was used in this case. I know how unfair this feels, and we’re doing everything we can to make this right. Her work is fantastic, and we clearly share a mutual appreciation for a specific genre of graphic design, and I’m excited to have folded that into our style in general.”

Marathon launched as a premium title on PS5, Xbox and PC on March 5, and Bungie has stated that – for the time being, at least – its post-launch content will be made available for no additional cost. The studio also vows the game will have no pay-to-win mechanics.