Fake Battles, Real Explosions

In September 2024, EA and DICE shared their first teaser for their upcoming Battlefield game. It came as a piece of concept art meant to hype up the in-development game.

The announcement excited many for the upcoming game and went by without controversy, at least initially.

However, a few weeks ago, user DANNYonPC on X (formerly Twitter) noticed something familiar in the artwork.

One of the explosions in the concept art was identical to a 2001 photo taken by Reuters photographer Ibraheem Abu Mustafa of a bombing in the Gaza Strip. The Gamer verified this, locating the original image.

Neither EA nor DICE have made a statement regarding the image’s use. However, as VGC noted in their coverage, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. In June 2024, Gaijin Entertainment apologized for using the real-life explosion from the Challenger Space Shuttle in promotion material for their game War Thunder.

The opposite has also happened. In August 2023, a video of fighter jets was shared on social media as footage from the Ukraine war. However, it was just modified footage from the game ARMA 3.

These incidents point to a simple problem: as video games become more realistic, it is becoming more difficult to tell the difference between fake wars and real ones.

The Copyright Question

It’s worth noting that the use of real-life explosions in the first two cases was likely an accident. I doubt that EA, DICE or Gaijin Studios deliberately used such images. The third case was likely intentional misinformation.

In the first two cases, the artists were likely looking for images of explosions that would fit their needs. However, whether they pulled from a stock photo library or the internet, they failed to check the source.

This raises some potential concerns from a copyright standpoint. Assuming that the images weren’t licensed, the copyright holders could, in theory, sue for copyright infringement.

However, there would be a strong fair use argument in both cases, particularly the Battlefield one. The image makes up a small portion of the new work, the use is transformative (not editorial), and it was unlikely to harm the original work’s market significantly.

But, even if the use is infringing, it isn’t likely to spark a copyright fight. Such issues are usually resolved in private as the damages rarely justify a copyright lawsuit.

That said, copyright isn’t the big issue here. For most, the more significant issue is the human element.

Tragedy into Marketing

War video games have typically tried to balance being realistic while avoiding the human tragedies behind war. Though there are notable exceptions, most video games want to focus on being fun and entertaining.

There are many approaches games take to do this. Some set their games in the past, with World War 2 being particularly popular. Others look to the future or alternate timelines, distancing themselves from real-world conflicts. Still, others keep their participants vague, not associating them with any country or group.

Even games like War Thunder, which emphasize realistic weapons and vehicles, shy away from real-life tragedies.

That makes it a problem when real-world conflicts seep into fictional video games.

Though the photo EA and DICE used was more than 20 years old, it doesn’t change the fact that they used an image from a place that was, at the time, an active warzone. Similarly, Gaijin Entertainment used an explosion from a real-life tragedy many (including myself) saw live on TV and remember vividly.

These issues can make the games feel a bit too realistic or as if they are exploiting real-world tragedies for profit.

Artists, designers, programmers and others working on video games must be mindful of where they get the outside material they use. While these are relatively minor cases in terms of outcomes, it’s easy to see how a different mistake could cause a much more significant backlash.

Fortunately, artists and designers can easily avoid this issue.

Bottom Line

Ultimately, this comes down to a simple issue: designers and artists must be more careful when selecting material to integrate into their work. Similarly, the companies that employ them must better vet what they publish.

Since we don’t know how the artists acquired the images, I can’t speak definitively about any potential copyright or plagiarism issues. However, from an ethical perspective, there’s little argument that these are not problematic.

Creators and publishers have an obligation to ensure that their work meets all ethical and legal guidelines. Part of that means performing due diligence on any material you seek to use as part of your work.

In these cases, that failed. Without more information, it is impossible to say where the failure was. But it is clear that there was a failure.

In the end, these issues highlight that, for many artists, the ethical and legal concerns go beyond copyright and plagiarism. They can fall into other potential pitfalls, which can be equally embarrassing and problematic.

Hopefully, EA, DICE and Gaijin Entertainment learn from these mistakes and set up better policies to prevent a repeat down the road.