EA says the release of Warhammer 40K-style C&C: Tiberium concept art was “unintentional.”
It came to light earlier this week that a couple of the tank designs for EA’s browser-based, free-to-play Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances bore more than a passing similarity to units used in the Warhammer 40,0000 setting. Users on Reddit pointed out that the Forgotten Grinder and Forgotten Bombard tanks are almost identical to the Ork Bonecruncha and Baneblade, both of which have been around since 1995.
But EA says the whole thing was more or less a misunderstanding, that “the IP issues around the artwork in question” have been resolved and that the image was never actually meant for public consumption in the first place.
“The artwork was internal EA concept art that was unintentionally released publicly,” an EA rep told Gamespot. “No Warhammer 40,000 tanks have ever made an appearance in Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, and never will.”
Games Workshop, which produces the Warhammer 40,0000 tabletop wargame and owns the IP, works with EA on the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMO and the new free-to-play Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes, which is now in open beta. The rep added that the two companies continue to have a “strong relationship.”
