Bungie admitted that it used a nine-year-old fan art in one of its new collectibles but said that it would compensate the artist for their incredible work.
The controversy began when the studio decided to create the Ace of Spades NERF Blaster for Destiny 2 players. The latest update is that Bungie will be ensuring that the artist who created the original art, Tofu Rabbit, will be compensated properly.
Bungie Compensates Artist
The decision was made after an internal investigation that looked into the matter following the artist's post about the similarities between her art and Bungie's new gun design.
The side-by-side comparison post showed all of the little quirks that seemed to have been copy-pasted from her art.
While Bungie can argue that it owns the underlying Blaster design, there were some similarities that went beyond that. Tofu Rabbit revealed that some parts of the new gun, down to the brush strokes, were exactly the same, according to TheVerge.
Despite the studio claiming fault and promising compensation, it did not completely explain the entire situation. Furthermore, its partner for gun design, Hasbro, did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the issue.
Tofu Rabbit said that Bungie had contacted her and that the studio had been "polite and encouraging" in private messages. She said that she was hopeful that the entire situation could be resolved soon.
The artist also gave one final update about the entire thing, saying that the studio has been nice and professional throughout the situation. This is a good sign that Bungie is doing right by the artists who do incredible artwork, said PCGamer.
Taking Other People's Work
Some people are speculating that Nerf took Tofu Rabbit's artwork and used it in the Destiny 2 gun design without crediting her. This raised the question of how a major toy company can work on a licensed project without being completely sure that it is working with official assets.
Another question that some people are asking is how Bungie can do a licensing deal without including its various assets. What makes the situation worse is that this is the third time that the studio experienced something like this.
These are from June 2023 and September 2021 and Bungie has also addressed one of the issues. For the Lightfall incident, the company said that it reached out to the artist in order to apologize for the "mix-up" and give them credit and compensation, according to WCCFTech.
