Overview
- System 3 released a trailer for The James Pond Legacy on Friday and top YouTube comments immediately accused the video, box art and trailer music of using generative AI.
- The publisher temporarily disabled trailer comments, then reopened them and posted a pinned denial that read “no generative AI was used” while linking to a blog that outlines a human-led workflow for the Bovine Bomber artwork.
- System 3’s blog describes step-by-step work including Photoshop cleanup, manual redraws in Illustrator and Photoshop, a 3D render and a final paint‑over to produce the character art.
- Observers and fans remain unconvinced, pointing to specific visual anomalies such as a missing milk jug, a dropped horn and inconsistent weapon shapes as signs they say look like AI artifacts.
- The dispute builds on public criticism from original creator Chris Sorrell in 2025 and threatens the release’s reception for a collection that preserves 12 versions of four James Pond games across Amiga, Genesis, Commodore 64 and SNES.