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."
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.
