The First Descendant's In-Game Icons Seem Strikingly Similar to Those of Destiny 2 | Push Square

pushsquare.com:

The First Descendant has barely been out a week, but it didn't take that long for players familiar with Bungie's Destiny 2 to see some striking similarities between the in-game icons used in both games.

Forbes writer Paul Tassi (thanks, VGC) highlighted the issue, as well as noting instances of similar weapon designs, namely TLD's Different Dream and D2's IKELOS series. In the image below (created by Tassi), you can see a smattering of icon examples and judge for yourself:

PC Gamer did some deeper digging, and as is often the case, there's a little more to the story than it first appears, and intriguingly, it opens an entirely new can of worms. Obviously, with Nexon swimming in the same waters as Bungie, these similarities would always be noticed, so what happened?

The First Descendant appears to use «free-to-use» icons from a website called Iconduck. It hosts a repository of «free open source icons and illustrations» that it claims «can be used on your website, branding and designs» for use in «both personal and commercial purposes and projects.» Admittedly, we write about video games for a living, but the legality of that last seems dubious at best, at least according to Bungie.

For example, Iconduck has a Destiny collection, which cites Tom Chapman as the designer. Chapman designed Bungie's Bray.tech websites for Destiny 2 and was tagged on Twitter to try and get to the bottom of things. He said he doesn't want his work used this way because the designs have been modified and aren't even his own.

First!

It's a pretty weird situation. Nexon has its artists and presumably a AAA budget, so why was dubious, free iconography used? Did no one on the development team recognise the similarities between these symbols, or did they think it was fair use? PC Gamer has reached out to Bungie, Nexon, and Iconduck for comment, and we'll keep an eye on this story as it develops. Let us know your thoughts on this affair in the comments section below.

Khayl Adam is Push Square's