When Is Bungie Releasing Marathon? ‘Hostile Environment’ Amid Art Theft Scandal Reportedly Forcing Delay

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When Is Bungie Releasing Marathon? ‘Hostile Environment’ Amid Art Theft Scandal Reportedly Forcing Delay

Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter Marathon can’t seem to catch a break lately. What should have been an exciting revival of a franchise has morphed into a PR nightmare that threatens to derail the entire project. The September 23 release date that once seemed set in stone now appears increasingly shaky.

The trouble began when *** artist Fern Hook (known online as ANTIREAL) discovered her 2017 poster designs plastered throughout Marathon’s environments during the closed alpha. We’re not talking about vague inspirations here—these were direct 1:1 copies, with one texture even containing the text “Antireal daily series.” Ouch.

Bungie’s “free-fall” morale and delayed release

According to

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‘ Paul Tassi, who is known to maintain reliable connections within Bungie, the situation inside the studio has reached crisis levels. “The vibes have never been worse,” one source told Tassi, describing an “actively hostile environment” surrounding the game’s development.

The fallout has been swift and severe. Sony‘s legal team has launched a comprehensive asset audit that is reportedly so “expansive” that Bungie couldn’t even show gameplay footage in their recent livestream.

The planned June marketing push and pre-order campaign? Possibly scrapped entirely. The August open beta? Reportedly transformed into a series of smaller public playtests.

And while discussions about timeline changes are likely happening in executive boardrooms between Sony and Bungie leadership, Tassi reports that regular employees aren’t even hearing “hints or jokes about a delay”—suggesting information is being tightly controlled as damage control strategies unfold.

Given the scope of the asset audit and the already lukewarm alpha reception, Marathon seems destined for a significant postponement. We’d wager on a four-month delay at minimum, pushing the launch into early 2026.

The extraction shooter genre is already crowded with established titles like Escape from Tarkov and highly anticipated upcoming ones like ARC Raiders—leaving little room for a rushed, controversy-plagued release.

A pattern of plagiarism plagues PlayStation’s studio

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This isn’t Bungie’s first artistic rodeo. The Marathon debacle marks the fourth time in five years the studio has been accused of lifting artists’ work without permission or compensation. Previous incidents involved fan art appearing in Destiny 2: Witch Queen promotional materials, a cutscene that borrowed heavily from community creations, and even a NERF gun design.

What makes this case particularly damning is that Marathon’s art director Joseph Cross and several other team members were actually following Hook’s social media accounts while developing the game. It’s hard to claim ignorance when you’re actively consuming the very content you’re allegedly stealing:

I see that Joseph Cross also follows you. Is there any insight you can give about the connection there?

— Reaction Andy (@solarphy)

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he’s followed me for a few years & a few others from bungie. never had any communication

— N² (@4nt1r34l)

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For PlayStation and Sony, this controversy couldn’t come at a worse time. After the spectacular failure of Firewalk Studios’ Concord last year, which led to that studio’s closure, all eyes are on Bungie to deliver a hit.

Will Bungie manage to salvage Marathon from this mess? The coming weeks should reveal whether the game can recover or if it’s destined to join the growing list of live-service failures. One thing is for certain, though—Bungie needs to make things right with

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before worrying about anything else.

What do you think about Bungie’s latest controversy? Should they delay Marathon to address these issues properly? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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#Bungie #Releasing #Marathon #Hostile #Environment #Art #Theft #Scandal #Reportedly #Forcing #Delay

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