Who is Joseph Cross, Marathon director addresses Bungie art theft accusations

May 17, 2025 07:16 AM IST

Marathon art director Joseph Cross has found himself involved in a major Bungie’s art-theft controversy that emerged online.

A major plagiarism controversy surfaced online recently involving Joseph Cross, the Franchise Art Director for Bungie’s upcoming game “Marathon”. It has been alleged that the game used digital artwork by an independent artist without authorization during the build.

Joseph Cross addressed plagiarism accusations (X)

Who is Joseph Cross?

Joseph Cross is a seasoned art director, who has been closely working with the entertainment and gaming industry for more than a decade. He is currently based in Seattle, Washington. He has held the position of Franchise Art Director for the upcoming game since 2019.

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Before taking over this responsibility, he had worked as a Lead Concept Artist for Bungie till 2019. He has worked on a ton of games and films, where his expertise and concept mattered immensely. The likes include popular Hollywood films like Dune, Kong: Skull Island, Ghost in the Shell, Deadpool 2, along with popular games like Destiny and Dead Space.

What is the plagiarism controversy Cross is involved in?

Joseph Cross has now publicly addressed the ongoing plagiarism controversy surrounding Bungie’s upcoming game Marathon. It was alleged that the game used artwork from an independent digital artist 4nt1r34l (ANTIREAL), without authorization. During a PlayMA developer livestream, Cross confirmed that an artist who was working for the building of the game indeed used Antireal’s work without authorization. During the livestream, Cross was quoted as saying, “There’s absolutely no excuse for this oversight. We’ve reached out to ANTIREAL, the artist in question, and followed up to ensure that we do right by this artist.”

Following this incident, the gaming company is auditing all its assets where the internal artist had contributed. Cross also confirmed that there has been some delay in the progress of the game due to this fiasco. In case any irregularity is found in the audit, Cross affirmed that they will be taken care of, eliminated, or recreated in-house.

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