Mobile gameArknightswas found to be using assets taken directly fromMonster Hunter Wilds. After similarities were spotted by fans, the game has been updated to remove the textures, and the artist behind the plagiarism has lost their job.
The artist in question goes by the name of Cenm0 on Weibo, and admits to copying part of Shagaru Magala’s design, with the asset used on a character skin design for Arknights. The patterns and their placement were found to be almost exactly the same, something which Cenm0 admits was “lazy”, and now apologises for.
Arknights Parts Ways With Artist Who Plagiarised Monster Hunter
“After I packed up my personal belongings at my workstation, packed up my digital screen, and dealt with everything, I hereby solemnly apologise and say goodbye to everyone,” reads astatementfrom Cenm0 (translated) from Weibo. “I fully accept all the punishments decided by the project team. People must bear the consequences if they do stupid things.”
As mentioned by the fans discussing this on Reddit, Arknights had actually had a collaboration with Monster Hunter before. This was back in 2023, so not too long ago, meaning the devs would likely want to act beforeCapcomtook notice and went through legal channels.
The comparison shots in the Reddit post show the before and after, as well as a look at the monster that the assets were taken from. The textures of the wings were taken and used as part of the design of the inside of the dress, but rather than just being an inspiration, it certainly looks like the artist just copied and pasted them over.
In any case, that has been amended now, with the skin being updated. All in all, it was dealt with quickly and didn’t result in any feuds with Capcom, but plagiarism cases aren’t usually dealt with so smoothly. We’re seeing that with Bungie now, asMarathon was found to be using a bunch of assets taken from another artist. The offending artist is no longer with Bungie, but replacing all of the artwork will take time, and may have contributed tothe recent delay of Marathon.
