[GameSpot] - Bleak Faith: Forsaken Dev Denies Accusations Of Ripping Off Elden Ring Animations

[343iBot]

Indie Souls-like Bleak Faith: Forsaken has been heavily criticized for supposedly ripping off animations from Elden Ring. After Bleak Faith's PC release on March 10, 2023, Twitter user Meowmaritus shared a video of the two games side-by-side, comparing what appear to be nearly indistinguishable animations. Despite the claims, Bleak Faith's developer Archangel Studios denies the accusations, pointing to the Epic Marketplace as the source of certain assets used in the game.

Meowmaritus is a Dark Souls modder who claimed Archangel was using their software to export Elden Ring animations without permission.

Saw this footage floating around. Bleak Faith: Forspoken is 100% using animations ripped directly 1:1 from Elden Ring.
I do NOT condone people using my DS Anim Studio software to aid in exporting animations to include in commercial products or sell them on Epic Games Store. pic.twitter.com/9JHGMeu9as

— Meowmaritus (@meowmaritus) March 12, 2023

"I do NOT condone people using my DS Anim Studio software to aid in exporting animations to include in commercial products or sell them on Epic Games Store," Meowmaritus said. Based on the footage shown, the similarities between the animations are apparent.

Archangel Studios responded to the claims via Steam, noting that "Any animations not made in-house are from the Epic Marketplace and have been up there for years, rigged to an Epic Skeleton." The developer went on to explain that animations can be purchased via the Epic Marketplace, and that they're available to the public.

The developer also said it's willing to "rework things," but states that it has not received any word from Epic Games about any stolen animations.

GameSpot has reached out to Epic Games for clarification on the situation and was given the following statement:

"Pursuant to the Marketplace Distribution Agreement, each Marketplace seller represents and warrants to Epic that they have appropriate rights to upload their content. As with any store that hosts third-party content, however, Epic is not in a position to independently verify such rights, and Epic makes no such guarantee to purchasers of the content."

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