Ford copies Firewatch official art for Freedom Sales Event promotion

The Ford Freedom Sales Event has started, and apparently, Ford has the freedom to ripoff work of indie game developers.

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so Campo Santo should feel extremely flattered considering Ford completely copied Firewatch’s official art for its own Freedom Sales Event.

A promotional image for the Ford Freedom Sales Event has started to make the rounds online, and as you can see below, it looks extremely familiar to Firewatch’s official art. If you think this is just a coincidence, then you should take a look at how the birds are shaped, the various trees, and the power line that is connected to the outpost.

Panic Inc., who co-produced Firewatch, confirmed the use of its game art was not authorized for Ford's use:

Sean Vanaman, who is the co-founder of Campo Santo, also didn't appreciate Ford's use of Firewatch's art:

Thankfully, the Ford Freedom Sales Event appears to be a Limited Time Offer, so hopefully this blatant ripoff of Firewatch will go away soon. But for now, we’re sure the damage is done for Ford, which we hope uses its freedom of choice to scratch this promotion and come up with an original idea.

Update: A promotional video with Firewatch's art has also been spotted on Ford Motor Company's official YouTube channel, which can be seen below:

 

Update 2: Gamasutra contacted a marketing representative from Quirk Ford, who says the art was discovered on widewallpaper.info. The representative said the website was "usually pretty good about about making sure [images] don't violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act." Chris Cannavo, manager at Quirk Ford, contacted Gamasutra again to inform them the promo art came from Ford itself.

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