Blaze Entertainment’s latest Evercade Showcase brought some exciting announcements for video game enthusiasts, but the use of AI-generated artwork has caused some disappointment among fans.
During the showcase, Blaze Entertainment announced that it had partnered with Gearbox to release two Duke Nukem collection cartridges for use with its Evercade EXP and Evercade VS consoles. The cartridges were set to include classic Duke Nukem titles, such as Duke Nukem 3D and Duke Nukem: Time to Kill.
However, fans quickly noticed that the key art for the Duke Nukem collection was AI-generated, rather than created by human hands. The discovery was met with criticism on social media, with some users on Twitter calling out Blaze Entertainment for being “tricked” into paying for AI-generated art.
Evercade being tricked into paying for AI generated art for their Duke Nukem1+2 remaster is just depressing (they’ve deleted all their tweets defending the artist now that they realise they were lied to) This is gonna happen so much more going forward.
— Man Fight Dragon (@manfightdragon) June 2, 2023
Initially, Evercade’s official Twitter account responded poorly to the criticism, defending the artist and blocking users who called them out for their use of AI-generated artwork. However, the company has since released a statement on its official website, acknowledging that the use of AI in the Duke Nukem key art did not meet fan expectations and standards.
The statement confirmed that the AI-generated piece would be removed from marketing and that a new piece would be commissioned in its place. Evercade also apologized for the controversy and thanked fans for their feedback.
While Evercade could have handled the situation better on social media, the company’s statement and response to criticism show promise. Hopefully, this controversy won’t dampen the excitement surrounding Evercade’s upcoming cartridge collections too much. There are still many great releases coming out later this year and into next year.
In other news, some Diablo 4 players on PS5 are experiencing issues logging into the game. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.