Cursing, Slurs and Stolen Art

The voice of deceased actor James Earl Jones appeared in Fortnite via AI last week, and it did not go well. Meanwhile, Bungie admitted it used stolen art in Marathon, while we got a bunch of news on the Switch 2. All this and more. Let’s go!

Bungie plagiarized assets for Marathon

Bungie confirmed last week that it used stolen art in its alpha of its latest game, Marathon. 

Bungie immediately pulled the alpha, and says it is reviewing and removing all the artwork that was used without permission. The art was originally created by Scottish artist Fern Hook, who posted the accusations on Twitter.

The company blamed a “former Bungie artist” for the plagiarism, saying, “we take matters like this very seriously. We have reached out to 4nt1r34l [Hook] to discuss this issue and are committed to do right by the artist. As a matter of policy, we do not use the work of artists without their permission.”

The public reception to the Marathon alpha has been more of a whimper than a roar. With the addition of the plagiarism allegations, morale is in free-fall within Bungie, and “the vibes have never been worse.” Currently, the game is still planned to release in September 2025.

Epic Star Wars fail

James Earl Jones returned to his role as Darth Vader to swear and spew racial slurs. 

Epic games used AI to bring back the deceased actor in one of his most notable performances as Vader in Fortnite. According to Variety, Jones, who passed away in 2024 “signed off on archival voice recordings being used by young filmmakers, who plan to utilize artificial intelligence synthetic speech technology to recreate Jones’ younger voice from his previous films for future Lucasfilm projects.”

In a statement, the family of James Earl Jones said:

James Earl felt that the voice of Darth Vader was inseparable from the story of Star Wars, and he always wanted fans of all ages to continue to experience it. We hope that this collaboration with Fortnite will allow both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character.

It did not take long for Epic Games and Disney to open Pandora’s Box and use his voice for Darth Vader in their latest Fortnite season. Players can recruit the AI-voiced Vader to join them and converse with him. Well, within an hour of releasing the bot in the game, Epic had to release a patch that prevented the Sith Lord from saying “f**k” and slurs.

I’m guessing this is not what the Jones family had in mind for their father’s voice.

The latest on the Switch 2

There was a lot of news on the Switch 2 last week, as Nintendo released some details about the hardware and games. The company released the technical specifications for their new console, which EuroGamer broke down and compared to the current Switch. Nintedo also announced that despite originally saying variable refresh rate (VRR) would be available on the Switch 2, it now says that feature will not be available while playing in docked television mode. Ars also points out there is a significant performance dip when using the console in undocked mode. 

As for games, Nintendo detailed that free updates would be coming to 12 existing Switch games for the Switch 2. Most of these updates are resolution and frame rate boosts, but Game Informer breaks down the changes for each game.

Other news about the Switch 2:

• Nintendo will be able to render your new Switch 2 useless if it detects hacking or piracy on the device.  
• Red Dead Redemption 2 will reportedly arrive on the Switch 2 by the end of 2025. 
• The Switch 2 will support text-to-speech, one of the most requested accessibility features.
• Nintendo plans for a “continuous flow” of Switch 2’s through the holidays.  
• Analysts claim Switch 2 could become the "primary partner for third-party game publishers" over the next five years. 

Side Quests (more stories worth reading)

📆 Editor's note: our next newsletter will come out Tuesday, May 27 as we celebrate Memorial Day in the U.S. next Monday.

🎲 Going to Gen Con? We posted our tips and tricks for finding events.

🪖 A year after its release, Activision plans to shut down Call of Duty: Warzone for mobile devices. 

💾 Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima says he is leaving his staff a USB stick full of ideas, “kind of like a will.”

🌎 In related news, Death Stranding 2 is getting a 12-city world tour with special guests and events.

💵 Sony is considering a price increase for PlayStation 5 as well as manufacturing the consoles in the U.S. to deal with tariffs. 

🖐🏿 Valve is rolling out a "SteamOS Compatible" label over the next few weeks, as the operating system moves to more handheld devices. 

📵 Epic Games says Apple has “blocked” Fortnite from returning to the iOS App Store in the U.S., and the game “will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it.”

📺 The Fallout TV series returns to Amazon Prime in December 2025, and was renewed for a third season. 

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👕 Roblox creators will soon be able to sell merchandise within the game. 

🕰️ Ubisoft extended the development timelines for some of its “biggest productions”, in order to try and ensure they meet higher standards.

📅 Marvel 1943: Rise Of Hydra was delayed until early 2026.

🕹️ Nate Anderson of Ars Technica wanted to find out if the classic Sierra games from his childhood are still fun to play. 

🍃 Almost 50% of gamers have reduced their environmental impact after playing games highlighting the issues of climate change.

📱 Square Enix canceled mobile game Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link to focus production on Kingdom Hearts IV. 

📽️ The next Mario movie’s title was accidentally announced: Super Mario World.

🚵🏻 Extreme sports game Riders Republic is reportedly getting a film adaptation. 

👋🏼 A fond farewell to Polygon, from the people who worked there. 

New Releases this week:

Check out our article on 11 New Games to Play in May.

5/21: Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
5/22: Blades of Fire (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
5/22: Deliver At All Costs (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
5/22: Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
5/23: Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
5/23: Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)

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