A lot of people really look forward to the Uncharted games. It’s pretty much the gaming equivalent of Indiana Jones–if Indy sold what he found instead of preserving it in a museum. Either way, both Nathan Drake and Professor Jones cause a ton of irreparable damage in their haphazardly wakes.
Titled A Thief’s End, the newest installment in the epic tale of Nathan Drake has been speculated about to no end–even some fans voiced concerns over it being the end of Drake himself.
Launched today, the trailer is already receiving a lot of buzz on the internet. It’s a shame, however, that most aren’t focusing on the family centered/treasure plundering plot–but on what might have been stolen art work.
Developers at Ubisoft were up in arms on Twitter earlier today, claiming that the trailer featured art lifted from their 2013 game, Assasin’s Creed: Black Flag.
The images below, when compared in juxtaposition, speak very loudly for themselves.
It seems that Naughty Dog took the role of thieves, perhaps, a little too far? If you scrunch your eyes, maybe it isn’t too far off that a game about essentially modern day pirates wanted to pay homage to another great game centered around actual swashbuckling pirates? (Squint really hard…)
Ubisoft wasted no time in pointing out the interesting predicament both developers now found themselves in. Assassin’s Creed head of content Azaïzia Aymar tweeted earlier this morning:
Meanwhile Alex Hutchinson, previous director of both Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4 threw a little shade, tweeting in reference to Jonathan Cooper, a former Ubisoft now working for developers at Naughty Dog.
Naughty Dog has since released an updated trailer featuring a new image, alongside an apology via their website for the mishap, calling it a “regrettable mistake.”
In our eagerness to get the story trailer out we made a regrettable mistake and didn’t thoroughly vet the artwork 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.
When all’s said and done, however, it appears both developers are able to look back and laugh. Ubisoft devs has since either taken down their passive aggressive tweets, or (like in Azaïzia Aymar’s case) kept all tweets up, but extended the twitter equivalent of a hearty handshake to Naughty Dog.
Regardless of pilfered art, fans really should take a look at this dramatic trailer. Despite the unfortunate mistake, it is truly a fun, worthwhile preview of what we can expect in Drake’s next adventure.
Uncharted 4 will be available exclusively on PS4 starting April 26th–which is excitingly not too far off.