According to Forbes, Bungie is very concerned about the launch of Marathon, especially because of the recent controversies surrounding the use of stolen artwork from the well-known digital artist ANTIREAL. The development team has confirmed this issue.
The studio is now facing a particularly difficult time, which comes at a moment when they needed calm and focus to build excitement for the release of their new game, an interesting extraction shooter from the creators of Destiny and Halo.
As mentioned, Bungie admitted that a former employee wrongfully took an artwork from ANTIREAL to use in Marathon, leading to the similarities that were spotted. Bungie has offered to contact the artist to make things right, but the damage to their reputation was inevitable.
Given the negative feedback received from the closed alpha, it’s clear that the development team is going through a tough period. Some employees have even told Forbes that morale among staff is very low.
Changes to Plans?
Marathon, which is scheduled to launch on September 23 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, could either become a big success for Bungie or a massive failure. The events of the past few days have raised concerns about a similar outcome, which could lead to the end of the studio.
According to some rumors, the team has paused its original marketing plans, which included releasing a new trailer in June along with opening pre-orders. They have also reconsidered the next steps for beta testing.
Specifically, instead of having one big beta in August, Bungie is now thinking about a series of smaller playtests spread out over time. These playtests don’t have specific dates yet, but with the September launch approaching, the studio doesn’t have much time left to make decisions.
