Microsoft took swift action to pull a new ad for the recently released game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds after a fan complained the company stole their design.
Reddit user macsterr posted a screenshot of the artwork (posted to the site two months earlier) followed by the advertisement in question released by Microsoft.
“Remember my Xbox One ad concept? Microsoft just copied it!” macsterr wrote. “I’m not saying I own any copyright but the original post has 63k views so I assume they saw it and I got no credits [sic].”
The similarities are pretty hard to miss: Both show a PUBG character wading through a grassy field, uniquely positioned atop an Xbox One S console.
A representative for Microsoft, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, responded to the post saying the ad has been pulled pending an investigation.
“Hey guys, I wanted to let you know that this is being investigated,” Hryb posted in response. “In the meantime, our official channels have pulled down the asset in question. I’ll follow up with the OP /u/macsterr/ once I get more details.”
While PUBG has had a pretty positive reception since its release (it has a score of 86 on Metacritic), there has been some negativity surrounding the game’s playability. An initial critique of the game by Digital Foundry found that the game ran “badly,” resulting in the release of a patch to improve the game’s performance and visuals.
