Apex Legends is currently facing an unpleasant accusation. Indie developer NOWWA claims that the design of the new character Fuse has been copied from one of their designs.
What happened? The indie development studio NOWWA has approached Forbes.com with the claim that Apex Legends has copied one of their designs for the new character Fuse. Fuse is part of the upcoming 8th season of the free-to-play shooter Apex Legends, developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. Fuse is set to be released on February 2.
What kind of studio is this? NOWWA is an independent development studio working on their own hero shooter called BulletVille.
When is BulletVille supposed to be released? BulletVille is currently in open beta. There is no release date yet. The shooter is planned for PC, Mac, Xbox Series X, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Mobile (iOS and Android). You can register for the beta on the official website.
This is BulletVille: It is a third-person shooter that aims to offer a gameplay mix of Overwatch and Borderlands and focuses primarily on fast arena combat, along with a sandbox world. The game also features numerous characters. The main hero is named Hunter and has a very similar design to Fuse from Apex Legends.
Here you can see the two characters in direct comparison:
Source: Forbes.com
In a statement to Nintendo Life, the developer said:
We are glad to see that the Apex Legends team liked Hunter’s style so much that they recreated it in Apex Legends – We even hope for a possible crossover! However, we fear that as a small indie game developer whose game has not yet been released, we could be called a knockoff of Apex Legends, which is certainly not true.
Source: NintendoLife
Collaboration with EA was discussed
How should this be classified? Generally, such cases are difficult to assess. By now, there are a whole range of games that count on similar character designs. There have already been accusations from Apex against Fortnite for having copied as well. Numerous heroes are created based on certain archetypes and therefore show similarities repeatedly.
For instance, one can recognize the similarities between a cyborg angel from BulletVille and Mercy from Overwatch:
Image credit: NOWWA 
Image credit: Blizzard
What is behind the accusation? In this case, there is indeed a backstory. The two likely had dealings with each other last year already. A deal was in discussion for BulletVille to be released as an EA Originals.
What is EA Originals? This is a program by Electronic Arts, where indie developers receive support from the publisher in the development of their games. The responsible EA Originals team is said to have had access to the alpha version of BulletVille.
The similarity between the two characters is certainly striking. While one of Hunter’s weapons is, for example, a rocket launcher, this belongs to Fuse’s ultimate ability. Many details come into play:
- Mechanical arm
- Eye patch
- Skull belt
- Biker outfit
- Gloves
- Moustache
- Similar color scheme
NOWWA itself emphasizes that Hunter’s design has been made public for almost two years, first in a tweet on May 7, 2019:
Is there already a response? So far, EA or Respawn have not commented on the topic. We will keep you updated.
There have also been disputes over character designs in other games. In 2017, Eternal Magic was accused of stealing from World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2.
What do you think of the case? Do you believe in intentional copying, or is it more likely that it happened accidentally?
