Borderlands 2

Famed artist Olly Moss got a surprise upon seeing the contents of Borderlands 2‘s manual, as some artwork inside looked extremely similar to poster designs he did for Star Wars. However, cooler heads prevailed in the end.

Everything started off when Twitter user Miles Jolliffe snapped a picture of the manual and asked Moss about it directly:

Is this the work of @ollymoss? #Borderlands2 twitter.com/MilesJolliffe/…

— Miles Jolliffe (@MilesJolliffe) September 21, 2012

Moss, previously unaware of the situation, stressed his displeasure at the sight, noting that while it wasn’t exact stealing, the art team at Gearbox Software had clearly lifted elements from his work.

That was all it took for the gaming press to eventually catch wind of the whole thing, with the news eventually reaching the ears of Gearbox president Randy Pitchford. Up to this point, Moss had made a few more tweets noting another suspicious piece that seemed to copy directly from his original work.

Someone also pointed out that they actually lifted elements straight out of my thing, which I hadn’t noticed… img.ly/nBiQ

— Olly Moss (@ollymoss) September 21, 2012

Pitchford eventually smoothed things over with Moss, admitting it was “uncool” for his company to “lift” the art without permission. Judging by his last posts, he’s offered Moss a job to boot, wanting to do things “right and legit.”

So, at the end of the day, a potentially large controversy came to nothing as both parties involved cordially and amicably resolved the misunderstanding without making things worse—a rare thing for the gaming industry.