Screengrab/Weibo
- Web users have accused China's Tencent of ripping off a Final Fantasy game trailer frame-by-frame.
- Videos are circulating, comparing a video for Tencent game "Douluo Continent 3D: Soul Master Duel" and a trailer for "Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers."
- In the minute-long video, the game characters are seen making similar poses and moves.
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Web users are accusing China's Tencent of ripping off a 2019 Final Fantasy game trailer by producing a blatant frame-by-frame copy.
Some eagle-eyed web users broke down the similarities in a side-by-side comparison video uploaded to YouTube and Chinese Twitter-like platform Weibo. The video highlighted the close resemblance that the new video for Tencent's 3D mobile game, "Douluo Continent 3D: Soul Master Duel" bore to a 2019 trailer for Japanese gaming firm Square Enix's "Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers."
In the comparison video, "Douluo Continent 3D: Soul Master Duel" character Tang San appears to move and fight adversaries in a similar way to Final Fantasy XIV's Warrior of Light.
"Douluo Continent 3D: Soul Master Duel" launched beta runs in May and June, and officially launched this July. Meanwhile, "Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers" was released in July 2019.
Disgruntled web users on Weibo also complained about the overwhelming similarity between the two sets of footage.
"If you put one on top of the other it's almost like a tracing, the scenes, and the actions are similar," said another Weibo user with the ID AD.Grindelwald said in a comment on the video.
Earlier this year, Chinese state-linked media Global Times reported that the live-action series version of Douluo Continent was also accused of plagiarizing content from "League of Legends" promotional footage and scenes from British TV series "His Dark Materials."
"We feel very sorry for our company's mistake and the negative influence caused to the public. We will take it as a lesson and strengthen our staff's copyright awareness," wrote production company Visual Impact Digital Production, addressing the accusations in a Weibo post this February. The company added in the statement that it would "quickly modify" the scenes in question.
"Douluo Continent 3D: Soul Master Duel's" game designer Blancozone, Tencent, and Square Enix did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.