Late last week, Destiny 2 developer Bungie landed in hot water again for accidentally allowing fanart to make its way into official media and merch—it was a nerf gun, this time, which used artist Tofu_Rabbit's designs from a 2015 commission.
One of my colleagues, however, also brought up that another artist by the name of Julian Faylona (ELEMENTJ21 designs) was still waiting for compensation and—wait a second, hold on, I know this person. I actually spoke to them over a year ago, June 22 to be exact.
"I’m the artist whose artwork was used for the Witness cutscene from last year," Faylona wrote. "It’s been a year and I'm still waiting for that compensation that you said will be given. Haven’t heard a word since."
When I last spoke to Faylona, I was relieved that they were going to get their dues from Bungie. I'm going to, cautiously, express that relief again—the studio's principal community manager immediately reached out to Faylona to speed things along and, in an email with the artist, I've been told that's the case.
"They expressed apologies over the long wait," Faylona says, "and are working to expedite the process as we speak." Back then, Faylona was downright gracious about it—stating that they were simply happy to have had a piece of their work make its way into a cutscene for one of their favourite games. When I asked if that feeling of goodwill had soured, Faylona tells me: "My sentiments haven't changed since. Although yes I did feel somewhat dismayed at the lack of a follow through."
It is, however, a fascinating hitch that just keeps happening with these high-profile cases. Faylona's hardly an isolated incident when it comes to Bungie. There was a snafu back in 2021 where a piece of fan art landed in a different trailer. In the gaming industry, both digital and tabletop, this kind of quality control seems to be a consistent issue, leading to embarrassing hiccups in other areas: War Thunder accidentally put footage from the Challenger Disaster in a background, and Wizards of the Coast has stepped on the AI-generated rake more than once.
When I ask Faylona for their two cents on the subject, they remark: "I think this is very common in the creative industry. Issues of copyright and fair use are often taken lightly and are perceived as a topic too obscure, complicated, and ridden with gray areas for anyone to care about. Also it stems from the lack of diligence and awareness on the potential repercussions should creatives get caught and its effects on their reputation and integrity as professionals.
"As a creative myself, generating ideas is no easy feat. It is perhaps the hardest part of the creative process and consumes the most time and effort. Thus, it's often very tempting to take shortcuts especially if one is beholden to time constraints, demands from higher ups, among other things. Oftentimes, these acts go unnoticed especially when said works have a small or limited public visibility. But for an IP as big as Destiny 2, with outreach and visibility on a global scale, the risk of getting caught is very high."
I've reached out to Bungie for comment on this story, and I haven't received a response yet—however, I'm willing to take Faylona's word for it that some kind of compensation is being sorted out, and hopefully I won't be writing this same article in another year's time, like some kind of grim annual tradition.
