As the megapopular video game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds neared its console debut on the Xbox One, one fan shared his idea for how it might be marketed. Now Microsoft has posted an official ad for the game—and the resemblance is uncanny.
Redditor Macsterr posted the spec ad shown above on Nov. 1, sharing it in the subreddit dedicated to Battlegrounds discussions, where it proved popular. Nearly two months later, on Dec. 26, Microsoft tweeted a similar image:
UPDATE: The tweet has since been deleted from the Xbox account. Here’s a screenshot from when it was live, with a larger version of the image below:
The fan-art designer doesn’t claim to have had any authorization to use the game or console’s intellectual property and freely admits to using an image created by yet another Redditor.
But the similarity between the official ad and spec design was enough to spark plenty of backlash for Microsoft. The artist’s follow-up post—titled “Remember my Xbox One ad concept? Microsoft just copied it!”—soared to the top of Reddit’s front page today and generated a wave of negative replies to the Xbox tweet.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft and its creative agencies and will update this post when we hear back.
Responding to a private message on Reddit, the spec designer tells us there has been no official response from Microsoft yet. The designer asked to remain anonymous but says he or she lives in Munich, Germany.
For now, you can compare the images below and decide for yourself if they feel too similar:
Redditor Macsterr’s spec design:
Xbox’s official ad:
