Monday, August 18th 2025
First Descendant Devs in Hot Water Over AI Ads Impersonating Streamers
As part of a recent ad campaign promoting First Descendant's latest update, new playable character, and Nier Automata collaboration, the official First Descendant TikTok account posted a number of AI-generated ads that generated a significant backlash from the community. Not only were the ads AI-generated, complete with robotic delivery and nearly identical scripts, but the developer also seemingly used generative AI to feature several streamers and influencers in the ads. The most overt example of the latter is popular Warframe streamer and video creator, DanieltheDemon, who has since come out and denied his involvement in the campaign, stating "I have no affiliation nor contract with The First Descendant. They stole my face/reactions from my most viral video and used AI to change what my mouth says and a voice that isn't mine. I did not consent for my likeness to be used..." on a TikTok video reporting on the AI ads. The game's similarity to Warframe was almost certainly a factor in the decision to use DanieltheDemon's likeness in the ad.
In a recent thread posted to r/TheFirstDescendant on Reddit, a user put together a compilation of all the ads, and many members of the game's community have said that they will no longer be supporting the game as a result of the ad campaign. Nexon, the developer behind The First Descendant, has since responded to the AI ad controversy with a statement on X, apologizing for "certain irregularities" and stopping short of taking real responsibility for the dubious ad campaign. Instead, it blamed TikTok creators who took part in a recent "Creative Challenge" program and used claims that "videos are verified through TikTok's system to check copyright violations before they are approved" to seemingly avoid any potential legal blowback. It adds that the company is "conducting a thorough joint investigation with TikTok to determine the facts."
Nexon's full statement reads as follows:
Sources:
game.central on TikTok, RockPaperShotgun, r/TheFirstDescendant on Reddit, TheFirstDescendant Official on X
In a recent thread posted to r/TheFirstDescendant on Reddit, a user put together a compilation of all the ads, and many members of the game's community have said that they will no longer be supporting the game as a result of the ad campaign. Nexon, the developer behind The First Descendant, has since responded to the AI ad controversy with a statement on X, apologizing for "certain irregularities" and stopping short of taking real responsibility for the dubious ad campaign. Instead, it blamed TikTok creators who took part in a recent "Creative Challenge" program and used claims that "videos are verified through TikTok's system to check copyright violations before they are approved" to seemingly avoid any potential legal blowback. It adds that the company is "conducting a thorough joint investigation with TikTok to determine the facts."
We would like to inform you of certain irregularities identified in the operation of our TikTok Creative Challenge for creators.
As a part of our marketing campaign for Season 3: Breakthrough, we recently ran a Creative Challenge
program for TikTok creators, which allows creators to voluntarily submit their content to be used as advertising materials.
All submitted videos are verified through TikTok's system to check copyright violations before they are approved as advertising content.
However, we have become aware of cases where the circumstances surrounding the production of certain submitted videos appear inappropriate. Thus, we are conducting a thorough joint investigation with TikTok to determine the facts.
We sincerely apologize for the delay in providing this notice as the review is taking longer than expected. Once the verification is complete, we will promptly share an update through an official notice.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
15 Comments on First Descendant Devs in Hot Water Over AI Ads Impersonating Streamers
We get certain banger HR speak such as "Irregularities" and "appear inappropriate".
Sometimes HR speak makes sense because of liability or other things that threaten the company, but not here.
What kind of liability are you trying to deflect here?
Artificial intelligence makes a lot of mistakes, so this is probably a mistake. And most likely, this YouTuber just wants to make some money off the situation as "compensation" and that's why he's crying so much.
:laugh:
I just see it that way because of the modern times we live in.
someone HAD to actually tell it to generate commercial content using streamers identities, it shat out that garbage and it likely went through 2-3 different people that greenlit the ad campaign and :
- either they saw no problem using other people's faces for their own gain or
- none of them checked if any of them bothered to ask the would-be victims of identity theft
Does that mean that someone else's mistake should make me hate the game I enjoy? And stop playing it, ruining my enjoyment of it?
Why?
And IMO the company needs to held responsible and sued for using peoples identities without permission for a marketing campaign.
Because they got caught being sleezy.
Do with that whatever you will.
The company made shitty decisions. But, for example, I liked their product. What should I do? They write "hate the company". Why? They made a product that I'm interested in. It's reasonable to assume that if I continue to support them, they will make even more good products for me.
The company means nothing to me. It's not a person, it has no emotions, it can't be bad or good, only specific people in it, and I don't know them either.
At the same time, the company itself did really badly, but this can't affect the products.
As I suppose...