‘The vibes have never been worse’ Bungie’s morale is reportedly in ‘free fall’ following its art theft fiasco

It’s safe to say Bungie has not had a great week. On Thursday, the developer of Marathon admitted it had used art designed by independent artist Antireal in its upcoming extraction shooter without compensation or credit. The studio blamed this on a “former Bungie artist” and promised to undertake a “thorough review” of Marathon’s assets. But it isn’t the first time Bungie has confessed to using other people’s art without permission, having done so on at least three previous occasions.

Combined with the less-than-stellar reception Marathon’s initial closed alpha received, the general mood surrounding the game and the studio is pretty bleak. Now, it’s been claimed the atmosphere within Bungie matches the feelings around it.

Numerous current and former employees reportedly spoke to Forbes about what’s going on inside Bungie. According to the report, morale inside the company is apparently in “free fall”, with one individual telling Forbes that “The vibes have never been worse.”

The report doesn’t provide many new details regarding the art plagiarism issue itself, other than to say that the publicly given reason for the art theft is also the one being shared internally. Beyond that, the studio is apparently going reviewing its art assets to check for any further evidence of plagiarism as it claimed, a process which could take a long time.

But the negative mood isn’t solely related to the art debacle. There is apparently broad concern about Bungie’s fate should Marathan provide a commercial failure. Moreover, the report alleges that Bungie’s marketing plan for Marathon is in tatters, with plans for a new trailer and the beginning of pre-orders next month out of the window, while a public beta planned for August may now switch to a “roadmap of public playtests”.

Finally, it’s claimed that many developers within the studio have been repeatedly ignored when discussing Marathon’s design direction by the “good old boy” leadership that originally pitched the reboot. This includes urging within the studio for Marathon to have a PvE element.

Marathon had its fair share of challenges even before all this came out, as noted by Tim Clark in his comprehensive preview of the game. “From a spooked Sony, to the inherently hostile nature of the genre, and Bungie’s own chequered history with Destiny’s live service model, monetisation, and especially PvP balancing. These are substantial hurdles the game has to clear,” he wrote back in April.

It’s worth noting Tim also said that the game is “definitely good”, mixing that hallmark Bungie weapon feel with some canny twists on extraction shooting. But it was debatable whether that would be sufficient to carry the game then. Now, with just four months before the game launches on September 23, that seems even more in doubt.