Apex Legends recently confirmed its Season 8 legend in the form of Fuse, who sports an eyepatch, robotic arm, and other distinct visual characteristics to help him stand out from the other legends on the roster. While Fuse is making his debut in Apex Legends with the upcoming season 8, it seems that it won't be without some controversy, as an indie studio has accused Respawn Entertainment of ripping off one of its characters to make Fuse.
NOWWA, an indie team developing a game called BulletVille, has suggested that the design for their character Hunter was stolen to make Apex Legends' Fuse. According to NOWWA, BulletVille had playtests with EA in October and November of last year, and the character Hunter has been known publicly for about two years. NOWWA provided a statement on the matter to Nintendo Life, where it expressed concern that it will be accused of ripping off Apex Legends because the two characters look so similar.
"We are happy that the Apex Legends team liked Hunter’s style to the point of wanting to recreate it in Apex Legends - we were even hoping for an eventual crossover!" NOWWA said in its statement to Nintendo Life. "Nonetheless, we are afraid that, as a small indie game producer whose game hasn’t been launched yet, we’ll be called a ripoff of Apex Legends, which is certainly not true."
Another similarity between the two characters is that Hunter uses a rocket launcher as one of his main weapons, whereas Fuse's leaked Ultimate ability suggests that he uses a rocket launcher of some kind as well.
Respawn Entertainment has not responded to the accusations at the time of this writing, and it must be stressed that it has not been proven that the Apex Legends team legitimately plagiarized Fuse's look from the BulletVille game. It could very well be an unfortunate coincidence, and so fans should keep that in mind.
Here is what Hunter from BulletVille looks like:
And here is an image of Fuse from Apex Legends:
Usually when something like this happens, it's smaller developers being accused of "ripping off" larger companies. For instance, there were quite a few Overwatch clones that funded the mobile marketplace at the height of that game's popularity, oftentimes completely stealing character designs and gameplay mechanics from Blizzard's hero-shooter. Similarly, there were many PUBG clones when that game was all the rage, with lawsuits filed against some of the clone games.
It will be interesting to see how Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts respond to these accusations. Again, it's entirely possible that the visual similarities between Hunter from BulletVille and Fuse from Apex Legends is mere coincidence, and it may be difficult for NOWWA to prove that its design was copied. After all, both characters are somewhat generic-looking anyway.
Whatever happens, the Apex Legends Season 8 start date is still on track for February 2 for now.
Apex Legends is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Switch port also in development.
Source: Nintendo Life
