Epic ‘not in position’ to confirm assets after Elden Ring animation scandal: Faith abandoned

Update: After being caught up in the Eldon Ring animation emulation scandal, three-man team Archangel Studios has released a statement explaining how Black Faith: Forsaken ended up with similar assets to FirmSoftware’s hit open world RPG. Effectively, it explained that 10 percent of the game’s development was outsourced to Epic Marketplace Assets, and that it purchased the packs in good faith. After escalating the issue to Epic Games, it received the following response:

Pursuant to the Marketplace Distribution Agreement, each Marketplace Seller represents and warrants to Epic that they have the 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 guarantees to purchasers of Content.

The assets have since been removed from the Epic Marketplace, and Archangel Studios is committed to converting them all into the game. The team said in a statement:

[The response from Epic] Not satisfactory to us and hence we have decided to replace the store bought assets over the next several days. Some of the changes we’ve included in recent patches, and more are coming in the next few days. It’s definitely been a big lesson for us and hopefully other indie creators out there that properties on these storefronts can’t be bought in good faith.

Original article: Many games borrow ideas and concepts from FromSoftware’s revolutionary gameplay formula popularized by Dark Souls in 2011. It’s so common, in fact, that an entire cottage genre of “soulslike” games now exists. Black Faith: Forsaken, a Soulslike game released on March 10, has reportedly taken things a step further, with its developer accused of “stealing” animations directly from Alden Ring.

Dark Souls modding tool developer Meowmaritus called out the title on TwitterShowing some pretty damning evidence and, unfortunately, misnaming the game in the process.

In response, a developer from Black Faith developer Archangel Studios released a statement on Discord defending the inclusion of the assets, stating that they were purchased as part of a pack obtained from the Epic Games Store. .

Dev under the username ‘überfaith42’ wrote, “We’ve always been transparent about using the Epic Marketplace for animations that are great and fit our theme. The rest I’ve made – we just need more variety, and I’m not.” An animator by trade, I had to learn for the game.”

A link to the Epic Games Store asset pack, which the developer claims the animations came from, was provided, but now only links to a ‘not found’ page.

Archangel now claims that the studio is working on alternative animations for the game, and überfaith42 followed up his Discord post with another, saying “I want to emphasize that this decision is an artistic one at this time. What comes out of the lens is something I’m proud of as an artist. Among all the manual work and unique things I’ve created over the years. I wanted the game to stand out in different ways and bring out its own flare in as many ways as possible. I wasn’t sure if any of the animations were really similar to anything else, I thought we were dealing with a legitimate entity and their work fit our vision of combat. If this vendor is illegal, then we will all be victims of nefarious behavior.”

What do you think about this whole situation? Is using assets acquired through legally purchased asset packs ‘theft’? Do you believe that the asset pack was actually purchased legally? Let us know in the comments section below.