Here’s something quite nice ahead of the weekend. The artist whose work was used in Marathon without their permission has now been credited as a visual design consultant following the game’s release.
For those unaware, in May of last year, artist Fern “Antireal” Hook posted a lengthy breakdown of where their art appeared in Marathon’s first public Closed Beta. Following this, developer Bungie announced an investigation into the matter, where it concluded that Antireal’s art had indeed been used during the development of Marathon.
The two parties eventually came to a resolution in December, when Antireal said the “Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction”.
They did not go into further detail at this time, however it would seem that part of the resolution was bringing Antireal on as a freelancer to work on Marathon’s development. As shown via the screen shot below, Antireal’s name can be seen in the shooter’s credits, where they are listed as a visual design consultant.
The full extent of Antireal’s involvement still remains unclear, and whether they provided additional assistance during Marathon’s development or if their credit simply relates to the previously used art is – for now – unknown. Eurogamer has asked Bungie for a comment. But, either way, it is a very nice touch to see after everything that happened last year.
After what has felt like years of waiting, Marathon finally released last night across Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
Our Connor has already had a quick spin with Marathon, and it sounds like he had a literal blast. “There may just be some of Bungie’s best work buried beneath the surface in Marathon,” he wrote in Eurogamer’s Marathon preview. “And I can’t wait to dig it out.”
