The action-adventure video game Bleak Faith: Forsaken, which was heavily influenced by the indie game Indie Souls, has come under fire following allegations that it stole animations from another game called Elden Ring. After Bleak Faith was made available for personal computers on March 10, 2023, a user by the name of Meowmaritus uploaded a video to Twitter in which the two games were shown side-by-side and compared, specifically with regard to their animations, which appeared to be very similar to one another. Archangel Studios, the company that was responsible for developing Bleak Faiths, has refuted the accusations and pointed to the Epic Marketplace as the source of certain assets that were utilized in the game. This is in spite of the claims that were made. Meowmaritus is a Dark Souls modder who claimed that Archangel was using their software in an illegal manner in order to export Elden Ring animations. Meowmaritus stated that he did not approve of people using his DS Anim Studio software to assist in exporting animations in order to include them in commercial products or sell them on the Epic Games Store. He stated that he did not approve of people using his software to assist in exporting animations.
This is a behavior that I will not support in any way. The footage that was shown makes it abundantly clear that the animations are extremely comparable to one another in many respects. Archangel Studios provided a response to the allegations through Steam, in which they stated that any animations that were not created in-house were obtained from the Epic Marketplace and have been available on that platform for a number of years while being rigged to an Epic Skeleton. This response was provided in response to the fact that Archangel Studios stated that any animations that were not created in-house were obtained from the Epic Marketplace. The programmer continued by elaborating that animations can be purchased through the Epic Marketplace, where they are also made available to the general public. He said that this is one way that animations can be made available to the public. The developer also stated that it is willing to make changes, but it claims that it has not received any communication from Epic Games regarding any allegedly stolen animations. The developer also stated that it is willing to make changes. GameSpot has reached out to Epic Games for additional comment on the matter, and in response to our inquiry, Epic Games has provided the following statement:In accordance with the Marketplace Distribution Agreement, each seller on the Marketplace represents and warrants to Epic that they are in possession of the necessary permissions to upload the content that they sell on the Marketplace.
These representations and warranties must be made before Epic can accept a seller's content for distribution on the Marketplace
Epic, just like any other retailer that hosts content created by third parties, is unable to independently verify such rights
Neither is any other retailer
In addition, Epic does not offer any kind of guarantee or assurance to customers who purchase its content that their rights will be respected
