Bungie Morale, Launch Worries And Changing Plans

Chaos has engulfed Bungie after an artist, ANTIREAL, came forward to accuse Bungie of ripping off her 2017 work as its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon was starting to take shape as early as 2018. Bungie admitted to the plagiarism, supposedly the work of one ex-artist, and promised to make things right, but the story gained traction among gaming outlets and reaction streamers alike, and it’s poisoned the previous positive conversation about the aesthetic of the game.

But all of this is happening after another not-great time period for Marathon in the last few weeks, starting with the gameplay reveal and then its Closed Alpha, both of which received mostly mixed-to-negative feedback. A livestream on Friday addressed both the art plagiarism and Alpha feedback in what ended up being the most uncomfortable on-camera offerings I’ve ever seen from the studio.

I’ve spoken to some current and former employees about Bungie’s excuse for the art theft, studio morale, the possibility of a delay and some very real changes when it comes to the upcoming presentation and playtesting of the game. Here’s what I’ve learned:

• The public explanation for the art theft, one ex-employee taking things in 2020, is the same one being given internally at Bungie among the rank and file.
• Sony and Bungie legal are now sorting through this and there is unlikely to be any much new information as all of this continues to unfold. It is not clear how long an “audit” will take of the assets to remove or find any more plagiarism, as it’s an expansive enough process to have Bungie not even show any footage at all in its recent livestream.
• Morale is in “free-fall” across all departments, and “the vibes have never been worse.” Everyone has the same concerns about what happens to Bungie as a studio if Marathon bombs, which is something they absolutely cannot afford.
• There are not even hints or jokes about a delay from the September release date internally. With that said, it is entirely possible, if not likely, those conversations are happening privately between higher-up Sony and Bungie leadership. It’s unclear what the plan is to launch the game in a “now actively hostile environment” just a few months from now, or how to turn that around.

Some changes to future plans had been made even before this new plagiarism development. Mainly as a reaction to gameplay footage and now the Closed Alpha.

• At the start of this month Bungie pulled the plug on its main Marathon marketing plan which was going to have a new trailer in June along with the launch of pre-orders. The whole campaign needs to be reworked now.
• A heavily marketed Public Beta in August may be changed into a “roadmap of public playtests” with no actual details set yet. This would align with Bungie’s stated multiple opportunities to play before launch, rather than just the upcoming Beta.
• Marathon was originally pitched by higher-up “good old boy” Bungie leadership, and as far back as five years ago devs were telling them what would and wouldn’t work and were often ignored. Many have said previously that it needed to have some sort of PvE component.

All of this, between necessary asset auditing, a reworked marketing campaign and shifting playtest plans, screams of a game that is not coming out in four months, or at the very least, shouldn’t be, though there are no indicators of that yet. However, at this point it may be the case that another 3, 6, 12 months would not fix what ails the game, which is more than just presentation and some playtesting, but for many, its questionable core concept wrapped in extremely cool aesthetics. But now they’ve lost that last bit as a praise point as well.

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