Ubisoft Devs Call Out Uncharted 4 Trailer For Taking Assassin's Creed Art [UPDATE]

[Dohc-WP]

This morning, Naughty Dog published an incredible trailer for their next game, Uncharted 4. Within the next two hours, some developers at Ubisoft noticed something strange: It uses concept art from Assassin’s Creed.

Maybe it’s an homage. Maybe it’s a mistake. Maybe Nathan Drake bought the Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag art book and liked it so much, he decided to frame one of the paintings. Either way, it’s undeniable that AC artwork appears in Naughty Dog’s latest.

Here’s the relevant shot from the trailer:

And here’s the concept art from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag:​

Whoops. At least they edited out the assassin?

Ubisoft’s Aymar Azaizia, whose official title is “Assassin’s Creed Head of Content,” first noticed that Naughty Dog had borrowed their art, posting about it this morning in a tweet that was retweeted by the official Assassin’s Creed account.

Ubisoft veteran Alex Hutchinson, director of Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4, was particularly brutal on Twitter today, calling out former Ubisoft employee Jonathan Cooper, who now works at Naughty Dog. Cooper had called out Ubisoft for comments that creative director Alex Amancio had made about women being too difficult to animate in Assassin’s Creed Unity. [Correction: we originally said those comments were by Hutchinson, but they were in fact said by Amancio.]

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We’ve pinged both Ubisoft and Sony in hopes of getting some clarification on just how this happened.

UPDATE - 12:48pm: Ubisoft declined to comment.

UPDATE 2 - 3:21pm: Naughty Dog has swapped out the old trailer and replaced it with a new one that has a different image. On their website, Naughty Dog apologized for the “regrettable mistake”:

In our eagerness to get the story trailer out we made a regrettable mistake and didn’t thoroughly vet the art work used for an in game painting. We’ve already updated the trailer. We hold all artistry in high regard and take full responsibility for having allowed this to happen.

We want to sincerely apologize to everyone at Ubisoft, the Assassin’s Creed team, the original artist, and our fans.

Source: Kotaku

 

[BeoTeK]

That's what's commendable about Naughty Dog, they are transparent and honest. Admit fault, apoligize and move one, if anything Ubicunts will be dumbasses and press the matter further.

 

[PsychoFish]

Shit happens sometimes though, sounds like an honest mistake

 

[Crableg]

Ubisoft could learn a thing or two from Naughty dog here...

 

[brendanvb]

Ubisoft is acting very childish, but I will admit it was a bit of a huge oversight on Naughty Dog's part if that was in fact just placeholder art.

 

[The_Imp_ZA]

Not sure why people are hating on Ubisoft? They did the right thing. Naughty Dog used their artwork, which is copyrighted, without permission. That's infringement. If an average joe did that, they would be in trouble. Naughty Dog is a massive company, they should have known better.

With that being said, those specific individual's conduct on twitter is unprofessional, and someone obviously has a bone to pick, but that doesn't mean that the issue itself wasn't credible.

 

[Grievous]

Not sure why people are hating on Ubisoft? .

Yeah, i thought they handled it pretty well and seemed to have a bit of a laugh about it.