Shadowverse Issues Update After Plagiarism of Magic: The Gathering Art

A few days ago, some people in the Shadowverse community pointed out how one of the cards (Holy Purebomb) featured an illustration that partially used Magic: The Gathering art seen in the Godless Shrine card. Now, the official Shadowverse website has responded to the artist's plagiarism and issued a statement about the plagiarized art.

"On March 9, the new card Holy Purebomb was revealed on the Taiwanese web program Shadowverse School and the official Shadowverse Twitter account," the site wrote. "Viewers then alerted us that a part of the card's illustration was nearly identical to a card in Wizards of the Coast's game Magic: The Gathering. Upon conducting an internal investigation, we confirmed that a part of Holy Purebomb's artwork had, in fact, been taken from another illustration."

The site went on to explain the cause of the issue: "Some Shadowverse cards are produced with the help of commissioned illustrators from outside our company. The card in question, Holy Purebomb, was produced by an external commissioned illustrator," it explained. "In a discussion with the card's illustrator, we were able to verify that another company's content was used in the production process. Ideally we would have been able to recognize the fact when the artwork was delivered to us, but we regretfully made the artwork public without noticing."

The company admitted that the artwork slip through unknowingly, "We believe that one major reason that this issue occurred is because the artwork was not adequately checked upon delivery."

To make sure that this kind of plagiarism won't happen with the Shadowverse game again, the company explained how it will prevent this issue in the future: "We will also notify in-house and external staff members to make a careful decision on whether legal clearance is necessary during the production process, and then act accordingly if and when it is. In addition, we will strengthen our delivery confirmation procedures and work toward the prevention of any future issues."

To read the full report, check it out here.

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