Developers Overlook Watermark in Free Trial of AI Software for Neverness to Everness

Neverness to Everness, the 2026 gacha title from Hotta Games, is once again at the center of a generative AI controversy, marking the third incident this year. This latest uproar follows a statement from the developers just four months ago, claiming the game “is built on human creativity” and expressing their commitment to delivering the quality players expect.

The “quality” in question has come under fire due to an AI-generated image of a seahorse included in the recent 1.3 update, which launched on August 12 in China.

Things took a turn for the worse when users on Bilibili, a popular Chinese live-streaming and social media platform, discovered that the seahorse image appeared to have been created using the free version of ByteDance’s AI chatbot, Doubao. How did they uncover this? Not through sophisticated AI-detection tools, but rather because the seahorse asset bore a watermark from Doubao AI that someone at Hotta Games apparently overlooked.

BREAKING ????: NTE has been caught using generative AI for art assets again—and this time, they forgot to remove the watermark.

Despite previous public apologies, Hotta Studio shows no signs of regret and continues to incorporate hidden generative AI assets behind the scenes.

If you’re wondering how players in China noticed this before the global release of the 1.3 update on August 19, it’s because NTE’s updates are rolled out in China a week earlier.

To be fair, Hotta Games never claimed they would cease using AI-generated assets after their first or second controversies. They did acknowledge that “AI-assisted tools were used only on a small number of background and environmental assets,” clarifying that none were used for “the characters or stories that define this game.”

While the seahorse asset may not be considered game-defining, it’s still amusing that Hotta Games opted for such a low-effort approach. Seriously, you couldn’t invest in the premium version of Doubao AI for a game that raked in over $200 million in its first two months?