The studio has apologized for the mix-up.
Bungie has recently released a new cutscene for Destiny 2, explaining the origins of The Witness. Digital artist Julian Faylona was very surprised to see that the studio was so inspired by one of his works that the team used it in the video, changing it a little. The problem is no one asked Faylona if they could take his art.
Thankfully, Bungie quickly found out about the situation, allegedly apologized, and then credited and compensated the artist.
"We've discovered that an external vendor that helped to create this cutscene mistakenly used this art as a reference, assuming it was official Bungie art," said the company. "We have reached out to the artist to apologize for the mix-up and to credit and compensate them for their awesome work."
Here is the cutscene if you'd like to see it "in action":
It's nice to see a big company righting its wrongs. At the same time, it's not shocking as Bungie is known for its firm legal standing on piracy, so it would be strange if the company got mixed in what it fights against.
This is not the first time a popular game developer took someone else's work: last year, Capcom was harshly criticized for "borrowing" the Street Fighter 6 logo from a stock image. That battle wasn't as graceful and open.
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