Neverness to Everness faces backlash as Hotta Studio admits AI art use, replaces flagged assets

Neverness To Everness Accused Of Replacing AI Art With Different AI Art

Less than a day after the developers of Neverness to Everness announced they would be “reworking†the AI-generated images in their recently released open-world gacha game, a new patch for the game has droppedâ€"and, apparently, a few of the “flagged assets†in question have indeed been replaced. However, some fans believe the game's most notorious genAI image has been replaced withâ€|a different genAI image. Roughly a week after Twitch VTuber Ironmouse stated that she was pulling out of her Neverness to Everness sponsored content deal due to the developers having reportedly “assured†her that the game wouldn’t contain genAI assets only for her to find that it did, the official NtE Global X account announced that developer Hotta Games was “already reviewing and reworking†the AI slop assets that fans had flagged. Today, a new patch for Neverness to Everness dropped, and, true to its word, it would seem Hotta Games has removed at least some of these assets. However, some fans think the most notorious AI slop example, an in-game billboard artwork that looked a lot like a promotional image for the anime film Weathering with You, has been replaced with an AI-generated image of a soda can. “There are way too many different types of clouds, the shadows don't make sense...and overall just a lot of extra unnecessary things happening for what should've been a low-effort background poster,†commented X user ViviVovo. While the new replacement image does have some of the hallmarks of AI slop, it would be awfully strange for Hotta Games to replace AI art with AI artâ€|especially when there are examples of them outright removing other pieces of GenAI content in the new update, such as the video that plays before the Pink Paws Heist mission (which has now been replaced with a TV static placeholder). If it is true that the new image is AI too, perhaps the decision to replace the AI art wasn’t influenced by the public outcry, but instead by the similarities between it and images promoting Weathering with You. After all, I highly doubt the copyright holders of the film were particularly pleased about being ripped off.

Neverness to Everness devs admit using "AI-assisted tools" after deleting slop animation, now "reviewing and reworking the flagged assets"

Accused of using generative AI to fill gaps in Neverness to Everness, developer Hotta Studio released a statement confirming it used AI tools to do pretty much exactly that. "Neverness to Everness is built on human creativity," the NTE devs begin in a Twitter post. "The characters, stories, and world you experience are the work of artists, writers, and designers. AI-assisted tools were used only on a small number of background and environmental assets, not on the characters or stories that define this game." From day one, Neverness to Everness has been put under a microscope by players looking for traces of AI-made assets, and they certainly found some. As Hotta Studio says, several smaller bits scattered around the game's open world, seemingly including a poster criticized for closely mirroring famous Japanese animated film Weathering With You, were very clearly made with AI in some capacity. Frustration and confusion around the game's use of AI recently came to a boil online following an announcement from IronMouse, a massively popular vtuber and streamer who was previously set to run more sponsored content for Neverness to Everness. She claimed that the game's team lied to her about AI use, so when she learned of the AI slop after the fact, she bailed out. This put more eyes on the game, perhaps prompting or at least hastening today's statement. In that post, the devs add, "We're already reviewing and reworking the flagged assets: 'Clear Skies in Summer' and 'Pink Paws Heist'." The AI-generated animation in that heist mission was deleted outright, as one player flagged on Reddit earlier today. Previously, players would see a short sequence bearing telltale AI marks, from a yellow tint to inconsistent movements and art styles. Now, you'll evidently just hear the audio from the animation played over TV static, presumably until the animation is redone entirely. The noise around Neverness to Everness fits a growing pattern of AI backlash in gaming. Breathless claims that every studio is using AI sit alongside consistent backlash from players at the first whiff of AI-generated content, from Nvidia DLSS 5 to individual assets or even translations. Even Larian, a critical and community darling after the sterling run of Baldur's Gate 3, faced fierce criticism after suggesting AI would be used in a placeholder-adjacent way for its new RPG Divinity (and ultimately u-turning on that). AI content unintentionally left in GOTY trophy collector Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was also quickly replaced after it was discovered, but only after it cost it an Indie Game Award win. Some of this player response likely stems from confusion on how AI is being used and a scorched-earth answer just to be safe. But sometimes it's very obvious how it's being used, and many players have proven over and over that they don't want it in their games. Amidst this type of pushback, several studios have scaled back AI plans or replaced AI content. Multiple developers, most recently including Subnautica 2 studio Unknown Worlds, have also gotten ahead of the whole mess by publicly saying they aren't using and/or will never use AI.