Whoops, they did it again: Bungie admits fan art was used in an official Destiny 2 collectible, says the artist will be 'compensated and credited for their incredible artwork'

A snafu that saw fan-made art used in the design for an upcoming Destiny 2 Nerf gun has come to a happy ending, as the artist involved says the situation is resolved, and Bungie says it's going to pay up.

The trouble came to light earlier this week, shortly after Bungie unveiled the Nerf Ace of Spades, a Nerf gun based on the famous hand cannon carried by Destiny guardian Cayde-6. The following day, artist Tofu_Rabbit tweeted that the new pretend-firearm "directly lifts a commission I did in 2015."

"This is not 'similar' or a coincidence, you can see my same brush strokes and scratches/smudges," they tweeted.

Images included with the tweet laid it out clearly. Ace of Spades is Ace of Spades, yes, but the details and imperfections in the Nerf design are just about an exact match for Tofu_Rabbit's work.

Yeah, that is definitely not a coincidence.

Bungie responded to the complaint the same day, saying it was "investigating internally and with our partner," and was also in contact with the artist. Now we have a resolution, and it seems that Bungie and/or Nerf did indeed lift Tofu_Rabbit's work for the Nerf Ace of Spades.

"We've investigated this with our partner Nerf," the Destiny 2 Team account tweeted. "We are currently in contact with the artist to make sure they are compensated and credited for their incredible artwork."

Tofu_Rabbit seems pleased with the outcome. "Just wanted to give one last final update, the situation with Bungie is resolved!" they tweeted. "They've been nothing but nice and professional with me and I am very grateful."

I love a happy ending, and props to Bungie for getting this mess sorted quickly, but I do have to wonder: How the hell does this happen? My guess is that Nerf took Tofu_Rabbit's Ace of Spades art as official and ran with it, which is understandable to the extent that the art is just that good, but how can a major toy company move ahead with a licensed project like this without being 100% no-confusion-no-mistakes certain that it's working with official assets? And how does Bungie do a licensing deal with said toy company without including as part of it the veritable mountain of assets it has to work with? Surely it wouldn't just sign the paperwork and say, "Okay, you'll find plenty of pictures online," right? And yet... here we are.

Making the situation even more baffling is that this is at least the third time something like this has happened. In 2023 Bungie mistakenly used a piece of unofficial art in a Destiny 2 cutscene, and in 2021 another piece of fan art ended up in a Destiny 2 trailer. As the old saying goes, once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times, come on man, get it together over there.

If you're interested in the Nerf Ace of Spades, by the way, it goes for $50 and is available for preorder now for anyone who achieves the Legend Title in Destiny 2: The Final Shape by September 24. Everyone else will have a shot at whatever stock is left over after that date.