Aspyr Media may have used a modder's work and not credited the owner for the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection.
Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection was released last week for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC following a surprise announcement and thus far hasn't been received too well. From network stability issues to game crashes to a lack of servers to even play the online game, the Classic Collection has had a rough launch, with the Steam version now featuring an "Overwhelmingly Negative" label.
Although Aspyr has since promised to update its remastered collection, the studio has now landed itself in more controversy after a modder has claimed that their work has been stolen (via GamesRadar) despite previously stating that the game won't be featuring "any code or content that is taken from uncredited sources".
This allegation comes from modder iamashaymin on Steam who said that the mods they made for the original PC version of Star Wars: Battlefront 2 were featured in the PS5 and Switch versions of the collection on release, but that Aspyr "patched them out quickly".
However, the footage was able to be captured before the patch, and the modder has claimed that one of their mods was present on the PS5 version, which reskinned Jedi Aayla Secura with the character Asajj Ventress, who was originally only playable on Xbox.
The most glaring clue was the different attack animations for the character, which was shared on Reddit. When this was brought to Iamashaymin's attention, the modder responded to the post saying, "It should be noted I am not credited on this version or any version of the Classic Collection."
Ventress Doesn’t Have OG Animations from r/StarWarsBattlefront
Iamashaymin has also since shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) who has called out Aspyr for allegedly stealing their work, explaining that they were able to datamine the game and find their own mod files.
"Seriously, @AsyprMedia I’m beginning to feel insulted," iamashaymin said. "Nintendo Switch launched with just straight up all my hero stuff from my mod. Same glitches and bugs. We’ve datamined it and it’s the exact same files just using the proper lightsaber attack anims [animations]. (This is before patch)."
The post was also accompanied by more footage, this time of Jedi Kit Fisto, another character they'd modded into the PC version of Battlefront 2, running on the Nintendo Switch.
The modder shared more evidence in the thread, including screenshots from 2020 that showed their work on recreating Fisto's projectile bubble attack, saying, "It is hard to make out in the video since it is in motion, but trust that it is the same."
Aspyr has yet to respond to the allegations.
For more, be sure to check out our recommendations for the best multiplayer PC games, as well as our definitive list of the best Star Wars games.