An artist who goes by @tofu_rabbit on X says that the look of Nerf’s Ace of Spades handgun from Bungie’s Destiny games came from a commissioned artwork they drew almost a decade ago.
Nerf and Bungie unveiled its newest foam dart gun collaboration on Tuesday featuring a limited edition version of Cayde-6’s iconic “Ace of Spades” blaster from Destiny 2 that is available for purchase on Bungie’s online store. The following morning, @tofu_rabbit posted images comparing Nerf’s newest foam dart launcher to a piece of art they made in 2015 and posted on their DeviantArt page based on the same gun from the game.
Addition: Artists image (from link in article):
It sounds like both parties made derivative works.
The initial design was from Bungie, then someone else made a derivative work from it. Bungie didn’t go after them for it.
Then some artist at Bungie made a derivative work from that work, and that they’re complaining.
Technically, neither party can legally go out and make and distribute derivative works. Probably both were in the wrong there.
The fact that Bungie left the fan art alone, didn’t send lawyers after them initially, doesn’t mean that Bungie has rights to go make and distribute a work based on the fan art.