‘Final Fantasy’ Game Relaunches With Accidental Getty Images Watermarks Inside
Image via Square Enix
Stock images are used everywhere, and by everywhere, we mean canonical video game worlds too. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, a remastered version of the hit 2007 game, rolled out on Tuesday with high-definition graphics and dynamic dialogue. Needless to say, when developers reworked the game, they had to fill details into previously obscure areas. It turns out the visuals are now so sharp, you can even see the Getty Images logo.
Spotted by Kotaku, the Getty cameo appears not once but at least three times. You’ll first discover it when you enter a Shinra mansion in chapter eight, where you’ll find a collection of paintings hung on the wall.
Upon close inspection, you’ll learn that one of the pictures still has a Getty Images watermark intact, suggesting that the designers only downloaded the preview version of the image. Not only that, but they also stretched out the painting and cropped off its upper portion so it could fit into the proportions of the canvas.
GREAT NEWS EVERYBODY! Getty-imagesᵀᴹ is canon in FF7!!!!!#CCFF7R pic.twitter.com/iFFSPxiCqo
— SchrodingersBBSeal (@Schrodingersba4) December 13, 2022
The same artwork shows up a couple other times in scenes in the house, according to the report.
Kotaku notes that the piece depicts Ludgate Circus in London and was painted by John Crowther in 1881. There’s a chance Square Enix might patch this gaffe out soon, since several players have already spotted it.
Citing the UK’s Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), Eurogamer points out that artworks in the UK normally enter the public domain 70 years after the artist’s death. Although it’s been 120 years since Crowther’s death, the in-game version might still be copyrighted since reproductions (in this case, the one on Getty Images) can be protected.
“For example, a transparency of an artwork in the public domain loaned out by a gallery or picture library is a photographic work that might still be protected by copyright. Similarly, taking a still from a film which reproduces a work in the public domain may infringe the copyright of the film itself,” says DACS.
Copyright law is tricky terrain. Read this to see how you can avoid getting in trouble.
