UPDATE: Jaxendale’s YouTube channel seems to have been deleted(!), quite recently, and the original video is gone. We’ve reached out to Jaxendale to ask why…In the meantime we found a mirror, embedded below.
The above video makes a pretty big claim: that Treyarch “stole” (as in stole your bike, your phone; thievery) some art concepts and the overall design for a map titled “Origins,” part ofBlack Ops 2′s upcoming Apocalypse DLC.
Go ahead and watch the video yourself, it’s pretty short. But if you can’t be bothered, here’s the basic accusation:
There’s an artist named Francsico Fruiz. He apparently designed some concept art for the film Pacific Rim. He’s quite good, from what I can tell.
He also made pictures of a giant robot fighting old timey planes. Those pictures can be foundhere, and here.
In the video, YouTube director (and Call of Duty fan page administrator) Jaxendale builds a pretty involved case alleging that Treyarch outright stole the art/concept/design. In fact, Fruiz himself made that accusation as well on his blog.
Jaxendale’s video is picking up some traction on forums, and the conversation seems pretty split. There seems to be three groups: A) “I’m boycotting Treyarch until the universe turns to dust.” B) “It isn’t stolen, it’s a coincidence, and if anything the original art looks like The Iron Giant.” C) “It probably is stolen, or maybe it isn’t, but I don’t care at all either way.”
We’ve reached out to Activision as well as Francisco Fruiz to request comments, and will update the story if new information comes in.
