Recently there had been a controversy over the FPS title S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and some art that allegedly bore extreme resemblance to art found in other popular FPS games like Half-Life 2. This was a big deal for many who attacked the game company and the evidence was pretty conclusive. That was, until today. It was revealed on Slashdot that in fact both companies had simple used art from the same "art pack".

This issue is more common than one might think. During my time at Mutable Realms on the later canceled MMORPG Wish, we had a similar controversy. One of the music tracks from our game sounded a lot like a track from another game. Of course, we got all sorts of negative press, but in the end it turned out that again, our team had simply used samples from the same pack as the sound guys on that other game. Ultimately, the incident put us in touch with some talented sound guys who we had been unfairly accused of stealing from and they agreed to do some music of their own for the game.

It's all moot now, but in the day of saving cost in development, don't be surprised if enterprising bloggers find more similarities between aspects of games. Companies make truck loads of money selling pieces of games all over the industry. Sadly, in this case, the developer has already had their name dragged through the mud and many won't see the relative footnote that the resolution story became.

It's something to keep in mind the next time one of these controversies pops up.