Neverness to Everness Faces AI Backlash After Launch

The mobile and console gacha title Neverness to Everness is facing significant controversy just days after its global launch. Players have identified what they believe are generative AI-produced assets inside the game, and the backlash has already cost Hotta Studio one of its biggest promotional partnerships.

VTuber Ironmouse, who had signed a sponsorship agreement with the studio, canceled her stream on May 4 and publicly cut ties with the game after claiming the developer had assured her team there was no AI in the title. "They had told my people that there's literally no AI in it," Ironmouse said on stream. She described the discovery as "so crazy" and confirmed she had already uninstalled the game. Her contract with Hotta Studio reportedly included a clause against generative AI use, or she was specifically told there was none before she agreed to the deal. That assurance, she says, was not accurate.

The controversy started on X when players began sharing clips and screenshots from the game pointing to suspected AI-generated content across promotional materials and in-game environments. The most widely shared example is a billboard video inside the game's city of Hethereau that appears to closely mirror scenes from Makoto Shinkai's anime film Weathering with You. Other posts flagged visual inconsistencies in background assets and short in-game animations that the community described as characteristic of AI image generation.

Ironmouse was not the only creator to speak out. English voice actor Meggie-Elise posted publicly that a game she had worked on had been "using AI and has been dishonest about it", stating she does not support generative AI in any creative field, including voice acting, art, writing, or music. She warned that if the situation were not addressed and removed, she would stop working with the team behind the game. Her post has since been widely linked to Neverness to Everness.

The developer has not responded publicly to the controversy as of publication. In a pre-launch developer interview, Hotta Studio had previously stated that "our core assets and character portraits will never touch AI" and acknowledged that AI tools were used during early development phases for atmosphere renderings and preliminary visual reference work. Whether the assets now being flagged by players fall inside or outside that definition has not been clarified.

What players are actually seeing is specific and frustrating. A billboard video that should play smoothly instead shows visual artifacts. Background elements have inconsistent lighting or geometry that doesn't match the scene. These aren't abstract complaints—they're things you notice when you're actually playing the game, staring at a screen that should feel polished but instead feels... off. (It's like finding a plastic fork in a five-star restaurant.)

The community response has been divided. Some players are defending the game's overall quality and arguing that the billboard scene is a deliberate homage rather than AI-generated work. Others are calling for a full disclosure of which assets in the game involved AI tooling at any stage of production. Neverness to Everness launched globally on April 29 on iOS, Android, PS5, and PC, reaching one million pre-registrations in the lead-up to release.

Independent reporting from GosuGamers corroborates the timeline and scope of the allegations. The outlet notes that complaints have also poured in regarding NTE's bland starting character lineup, which lacks unique characteristics and features designs reminiscent of other gacha characters—further fueling suspicions of AI usage in character design.

According to the original Notebookcheck coverage, the game is free to play across all platforms. The controversy highlights a growing tension in the industry between developers seeking efficiency through AI tools and players who expect transparency about creative processes.

Neverness to Everness is not the first game to face this scrutiny. The pattern is becoming familiar: launch, discovery, backlash, silence. Hotta Studio's previous title, Tower of Fantasy, had similar issues in 2024, suggesting this may be a recurring challenge for the developer rather than an isolated incident.

Whether players actually pay for it remains the real question. The game's gacha structure and monetization model will face additional pressure if trust erodes further. For now, Hotta Studio has chosen not to comment, leaving the community to debate whether this is a case of honest miscommunication or something more problematic.

The situation illustrates the current state of AI in gaming: companies use it quietly, players find it, and everyone argues about whether it matters. Time will tell if this affects long-term retention, but the immediate damage to partnerships and reputation is already done.

Artūras Malašauskas is an AI Systems Integrator with 20+ years of production-grade web engineering experience. He has designed, shipped, and scaled enterprise Python/PHP systems for logistics, SaaS, and public-sector clients. For the past year, he has focused exclusively on AI integrations: deploying open-source LLMs, building generative media pipelines (image, audio, video), and engineering multi-agent workflows for real production environments. His standard: reproducibility, security, cost-efficient inference—no vaporware. He documents and evaluates emerging AI tooling, separating verified capabilities from marketing noise. Technical editor at: muza-ai.eu, ai-verslas.lt, ai-naujinos.lt Connect on LinkedIn