Stellaris mobile beta taken offline over stolen Halo assets
"This was a clear mistake on our part," says Galaxy Command team
Paradox has pulled its new mobile game Stellaris: Galaxy Command on launch day in order to perform a full "content sweep" for misappropriated assets.
The move comes afters it was revealed the mobile adaptation of Paradox's successful galaxy conquest sim featured stolen artwork from the Halo series.
"This was a clear mistake on our part, and we are working to fix it as quickly as we can," said the Galaxy Command team in a statement on Twitter.
"We trust [developer] Gamebear to make things right for Galaxy Command and we will work closely with them to ensure this game meets the high standards our players deserve. We're sorry this happened, and we will do better."
First spotted by a Reddit user, the artwork is almost immediately recognisable from Halo, including several iconic vehicles from the long-running series and some slapdash airbrushing.
While published by Paradox, the development was outsourced to Hong Kong-based developer Gamebear, the maker of mobile strategy game Nova Empire which appears to be heavily inspired by Stellaris.