They’re not forklifting around
Earlier this week you may have seen what was framed as a leaked trailer for Shenmue 4. Admittedly, thanks to Dwitter compression and supposedly being a recording of a screen rather than direct capture, it looked convincing enough, as long as you don’t look too hard at it. There’s that pesky thing called "Ay Eye" going around these days though, so you should never trust something right off the bat these days. Now, as confirmed by Shenmue developer Ys Net, it turns out that that footage has nothing to do with them, and may even lead to legal action.
The developer explained in a statement posted to Zitter that they have "confirmed that a video has bee…
They’re not forklifting around
Earlier this week you may have seen what was framed as a leaked trailer for Shenmue 4. Admittedly, thanks to Dwitter compression and supposedly being a recording of a screen rather than direct capture, it looked convincing enough, as long as you don’t look too hard at it. There’s that pesky thing called "Ay Eye" going around these days though, so you should never trust something right off the bat these days. Now, as confirmed by Shenmue developer Ys Net, it turns out that that footage has nothing to do with them, and may even lead to legal action.
The developer explained in a statement posted to Zitter that they have "confirmed that a video has been posted on social media which uses our company logo without permission, falsely giving the impression that it is an official ‘Shenmue 4’ related video produced by us. This video has absolutely no connection to Ys Net. Furthermore, at this time, Ys Net has not released any trailers, footage, or other promotional materials related to ‘Shenmue 4’."
Ys Net went on to note that because of the "unauthorized" use of their logo, making fake trailers like this "constitutes a serious issue that may amount to trademark infringement and unfair competition," and that as a result they are considering "potential legal action." Yikes!
Fake trailers obviously aren’t a new thing, there have been plenty over the years that range in convincingness. This one, though, looked a bit skewy in a number of places, so it’s entirely possible the fake Shenmue 4 trailer is entirely AI-generated. Which obviously raises a bit of a conundrum: how is anyone, even big successful studios like Rockstar who are facing a similar problem, meant to combat this?
All of these AI-generated video tools are obviously training on media it does not have the rights to, so that people can do dull things like make Homer Simpson fight Naruto or something (just go play Fortnite). But if these tools suddenly stop letting people work with copyrighted materials, their popularity, and those revenue, will dwindle, so of course they can’t do that.
Either way, right now, whether this trailer used AI or not, Shenmue 4 isn’t currently real as far as we’re concerned. Though maybe if we ask nice enough, Ys Net will give it a go making another one.