The new soulslike video gameBleak Faith: Forsakenhas removed the assets it was accused of stealing fromElden Ring. However,Bleak Faith: Forsakendeveloper Archangel Studios claims it purchased the animations legally from a third party.After releasing on March 10, the soulslike stirred up controversy online when gamers pointed out the major similarities between the animations used by FromSoftware’sElden Ringand those present in the newly releasedBleak Faith: Forsaken. The similarities were such that Archangel Studios was accused of stealing the assets. The indie developer has denied the accusations, pointing out that it purchased the assets from a third party at the Unreal Engine Marketplace, and took up the issue with Epic Customer Service, saying it was being “preemptive as a sign of good faith.” It also urged fans to keep in mind that all AAA companies outsource their promotional work to other companies as well.RELATED:Nintendo Switch Getting Great Co-Op Soulslike Game SoonNow, the indie developer studio has entirely removed the animations from its game. The move comes after receiving a somewhat bland response from Epic Customer Service saying that, as with any other store hosting third-party content, Epic is in no position to independently verify whether aUnreal EngineMarketplace seller has the appropriate rights to upload their content and that Epic makes no such guarantee to purchasers of the content.
And, although Epic did not verify whether the assets were stolen or not, the company did have them removed from its marketplace, which ultimately led to Archangel Studios' decision to have the controversial animations removed from its game altogether. While the removal of the animations from thenewly released soulslikeseemingly solves the problem, their removal by Epic from its marketplace could very well be perceived as a testament to the company’s lack of faith in the assets' provenance.
While all thecontroversy surroundingBleak Faith: Forsaken’s animationshas definitely been a setback for the game, its development team has reaffirmed its commitment to the project. In a post on the soulslike game’s Discord channel, one of its developers, überfaith42, said the team would spend its time going forward working on alternatives.
The team behindBleak Faith: Forsakenalso expressed its dissatisfaction at the response from Epic Customer Service in a Twitter thread. In it, the indie developer states somewhat begrudgingly that seemingly assets cannot be purchased from theUnreal Engine Marketplacein good faith, and hope that all the controversy serves as a lesson to other indie video game developers just as it served them.
Bleak Faith: Forsakenis out now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
