By now it’s probably just another flash in the pan, with a lingering stink in SNK’s hair.  Things had been going fairly calmly since the furore over the guest characters had reduced to a simmer.  And then…

TLDR here’s my reaction

Tis the season to be jolly in January as we awaited the new season 2 announcement.

So we waited, but then there was a little ad, that provoked some rumbling as it featured an AI render of the old SNK building with a message in blood. Upon further inspection, even the zoom in was done with AI and corrupted SNK’s logos.

Then the magazine Gamespark accidentally posted the Season 2 reveal early, and well, that was that, but it wasn’t really too damaging as SNK was due to post their reveal a day after. All the  revealed characters were as expected, the most incredible thing probably being Krauser’s beard returning when everyone was expecting the clean shaved Kaiser from the previous teaser.

Then there was the full ad, which was … fine, as ads go, but again, under the eye of the community, unnacceptable, at least from the majority of the Western fans’ point of view.

While on the whole the Japanese comments were positive, it should be of no surprise that the Japanese artists’ voices were in unison with the main complaint.  And why shouldn’t they, AI is most relevant to them, the threat to their livelihood and passion, compared to the consumer who can just enjoy content without any repercussion.  The thing is, while we all know AI is inevitable, right now, these AI generated clips are literally sloppy, it’s not good enough, Krauser looks like some old crone, Terry is a brunette (maybe accurate?!) and frankly everyone would have preferred the SNK artists’ work.  But who are we?  Just the fans that play the games, not the mainstream with a bucket of popcorn and wallet of bill-paying cash.  What they think matters more.  Sheesh.  I know how it feels to be undervalued, and it doesn’t feel good.

There are quite a few reaction videos, and edits, and it’s given social media some meat to chew on for a bit.  SNK released a balance sneak peek which has alleviated the anger somewhat.  When’s Kenshiro?  But when all’s said and done, the marketing department will probably want to remain uncredited and anonymous.

Now I wonder if the reaction would have been so bad if the marketing had posted something like this instead.  Thx Johnny!

The most annoying thing is the whole debacle is overshadowing the amazing schedule where players will get a new character EVERY MONTH. I can’t think of another game that is doing that right now. The balance changes won’t be able to keep up, and the game will be invigorating!