Destiny 2 cutscene "mistakenly" used fanart, so Bungie is compensating the artist behind it

Bungie has said it will credit and compensate an artist whose Destiny 2 fanart was "mistakenly" used in a recently added cutscene.

Some potential spoilers for Destiny 2 Season of the Deep ahead.

Last week, a big cutscene was added into Destiny 2 as part of the current Season of the Deep, and for all the lore fans out there, it was a big one. The big thing was that an explanation behind the origin of the Witness, the big villain in the game at the moment, was explained. The problem? One part of the cutscene features some fanart that was used without permission or acknowledgement for the artist who created it.

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As reported by PC Gamer, artist Julian Faylona, also known as ELEMENTJ21, shared a tweet showing a comparison between one particular moment from the cutscene, and some older fanart of theirs. You can check out the tweet below, and you don't need to look very long at either piece at all to see the similarities. The only big differences are the lack of colour in the moment from the cutscene, and the style not being exactly the same as the fanart - but everything else is pretty much the same.

PC Gamer reached out to Faylona about the usage of their fanart, who actually seemed to feel positive about it. "To be honest, I'm genuinely excited and happy that the piece I made 2 years ago - which, even back then, I fully acknowledged is based on the Destiny franchise - made it into the cutscene," Faylona told PC Gamer. "It was totally unexpected and completely caught me by surprise. So much so that I wanted to make a shoutout about it."

Bungie also provided a statement to PC Gamer, where it explained that this happened due to a mix-up from an "external vendor."

"Bungie has reached out to ELEMENTJ21 about the art piece from this week's cutscene and are planning to compensate and credit them for their work," reads Bungie's statement. "We discovered that an external vendor that helped to create this cutscene mistakenly used this art as a reference, assuming it was official Bungie artwork. We are currently waiting to hear back from the artist to take the necessary steps to remedy this situation."

Not the ideal way of paying an artist for their work, but hey, it's great to hear that Faylona will be getting the credit and compensation they deserve.

We'll be learning about what's next for Destiny 2 this August, as a showcase is set to show off the next expansion, The Final Shape.