The First Descendant, a free-to-play co-op centered looter shooter from Korean video games firm Nexon, is blowing up throughout PC and console with huge participant numbers on Steam particularly. But as gamers debate the rights and wrongs of its extremely aggressive monetization, one other controversy has hit the sport.
Forbes reported that The First Descendant “is utilizing barely-changed” Destiny 2 icons, and pointed to the exceptional similarities between icons utilized by developer Bungie for its veteran looter shooter and people utilized by Nexon for its new looter shooter challenger.
Certainly, the similarities are exhausting to disregard. One Bungie icon artist tweeted to say it “seems like an excellent day to say that Bungie icon artists are a super-crew of gifted of us with authentic concepts and sharp instincts.” But what’s really occurred right here?
‘The First Descendant’ Is Using Barely-Changed ‘Destiny 2’ Icons by way of @forbes pic.twitter.com/gGKfoTkLk9
— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) July 7, 2024
While Nexon is beneath strain to clarify itself (IGN has requested for remark however has but to listen to a response), followers have unearthed proof to recommend the basis of the issue may be present in an icon database that appears to misconceive the ideas of non-public and industrial use of property.
Iconduck payments itself as a “free and open-source” database of lots of of 1000’s of icons, illustrations, emojis, logos, and flags, and contains a variety of Destiny icons Nexon might have lifted to be used in The First Descendant.
As noticed by PC Gamer, Iconduck has a Destiny Icons set that features 204 icons, all open sourced with a Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal license. “All icons can be utilized for private and industrial functions,” Iconduck claims.
This icon set was designed by Tom Chapman, who made the Bray.tech web sites amongst others for Destiny 2. In a tweet, Chapman stated a lot of the icons within the set had been “ripped from the font recordsdata created by Bungie and its designers.”
“Most of the rest are designed by Bungie and recreated by me or whoever contributed them to that repo,” Chapman added, earlier than casting doubt on Iconduck itself: “I’ve come to hate open supply… I do not need @iamiconduck to make use of my work like this.”
It’s value mentioning that Iconduck additionally makes out there icons from the Pokémon franchise, together with Pikachu and Poké Balls, Marvel Avengers icons, well-known Batman icons, and many extra photos you’d think about Iconduck wouldn’t have the rights to make out there for folks to make use of for industrial functions.
There are many different icon databases that embrace comparable units and make comparable claims of their use. Nexon might properly have used icons from considered one of these web sites, equivalent to Iconduck, and tweaked them barely for The First Descendant, however the firm has but to clarify its course of. If it did, Nexon would then face strain to clarify why it did. Again, IGN has requested for remark.
The First Descendant rekindles recollections of Palworld, Pocketpair’s controversial ‘Pokémon with weapons’ survival and crafting sport that has been accused of “ripping off” ‘Pokémon, however has additionally been in contrast gameplay clever to all types of titles within the survival and crafting style.
Generally talking, The First Descendant is a mash-up of mechanics from varied looter shooters already available in the market. There’s greater than a whiff of Destiny about The First Descendant’s design, programs, and mechanics, however then there’s additionally plenty of Warframe about it, too. Check out IGN’s The First Descendant evaluation in progress to seek out out what we consider the sport up to now.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
