Sony has removed a PS4 ad after being accused of major plagiarism. The ad, which was released in Japan, starred several major PS4 games such as EA's soccer sim FIFA 20, Hideo Kojima's new game Death Stranding, and the Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Last week, Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia released a musical PS4 ad but the video was quickly criticized by the animation site Catsuka, which spotted several animations that seemed to be plagiarized by other forms of media. A video posted by Catsuka on Twitter showed scenes from the PS4 ad that look like scenes from the Steven Universe movie, anime series FLCL, and the work of students at Gobelins, a French animation college.
After some investigation, other social media users found that this may not have been the first time that the PS4 ad's animation director, Kevin Bao, has copied from other artists. Bao also appears to have copied Born in a Void, a short film by Alex Grigg, for a video he made called TMRRW TDAY. The animation director may have also copied multiple videos by production company Golden Wolf, such as the company's Live With YouTube Gaming video.
It didn't take long for Bao's collaborators to denounce the animation director and slam his behavior. Animation company Eallin Animation released a statement saying that it had no knowledge that the work produced by Kevin Bao was plagiarized" and that it has "ceased with immediate effect any representation of Kevin Boa's work." The PS4 ad has also been removed by Sony, though the video is available on YouTube as fans had downloaded it and reuploaded it to their channels.
The video game industry and its ads make so much money that plagiarism happens often. This year, Bethesda pulled an Elder Scrolls Online table-top game after it was found to have plagiarized Dungeons and Dragons. That board game had been created to promote The Elder Scrolls Online expansion Elsweyr.
A month before, there were also reports that an IGN editor had plagiarized several of his reviews from other content creators. The editor was fired from IGN after the publication did an investigation. It's unclear whether Sony will also do an investigation into Bao's work and if more really needs to be seen after the Catsuka video. But those whose work was plagiarized will be happy that some have stopped working with him.