Nexon's The First Descendant gets mired in controversy over using streamer's AI likeness in advertisements
A popular streamer who goes by the name DanieltheDemon has publicly accused the developers behind Nexon’s free-to-play looter-shooter The First Descendant of using AI to appropriate his likeness in promotional advertisements without his consent. This has caused widespread backlash in the gaming community.
This controversy first caught wind over the weekend, when numerous ads surfaced on the official TikTok account of The First Descendant, where enthusiastic streamers would react to gameplay and claim it to be “the world’s most popular shooter RPG.”
Within no time, the videos were scrutinized for their uncanny valley aesthetics, as many viewers pointed out the unnatural speech patterns and the streamer’s movements, which were indicative of AI-generated content.
Reddit user iHardlyTriHard compiled a montage of all the ads and posted it to the r/TheFirstDescendant subreddit, where they showcased the use of AI voices, further criticizing the authenticity of the content. The compilation featured a streamer who bore a striking resemblance to DanieltheDemon, who his a veteran Warframe content creator. But it became obvious that the video was AI-generated due to the mismatched voice and altered dialogue.
As a result, community members expressed outrage, comparing The First Descendant’s ads to blatant scam promotions for fake mobile games. Speculation suggests that the likeness was derived from DanieltheDemon’s most viral video through AI image-to-video generation, potentially without his permission.
DanieltheDemon finally addressed the allegations directly in the comment section of a TikTok video posted by Game Central, which covered the ad montage. In the comment, he stated, “I have no affiliation nor contract with The First Descendant. They stole my face/reactions from my most viral video and used AI to change what my mouth says and a voice that isn’t mine. I did not consent for my likeness to be used.”
In response to the mounting uproar, Nexon, the publisher of The First Descendant, finally issued an official statement where they acknowledged irregularities in the ads and attributed them to a collaborative program with TikTok. In the statement on X, the company elaborated:
“As a part of our marketing campaign for Season 3: Breakthrough, we recently ran a Creative Challenge program for TikTok Creators, which allows creators to voluntarily submit their content to be used as advertising material. All submitted videos are verified through TikTok’s system to check copyright violations before they are approved as advertising content.
However, we have become aware of cases where the circumstances surrounding the production of certain submitted videos appear inappropriate. Thus, we are conducting a thorough joint investigation with TikTok to determine the facts.
We sincerely apologize for the delay in providing this notice, as the review is taking longer than expected. Once the verification is complete, we will promptly share an update through an official notice.”
