Square Enix has addressed the controversy surrounding the North American box art for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III], stating that the visual errors were the result of human error and not generative artificial intelligence. The artwork drew public attention last month when it was released, with many players noticing that Donald Duck appeared to have an incorrect number of fingers on his hand.
The composition of the new box art differed from the original artwork by Tetsuya Nomura, which typically featured characters clustered near the center. The revised art separated the characters, leading some to speculate that AI tools were used to fill in new details, such as previously obscured parts of Donald Duck's hand, inadvertently introducing errors.
In response to the feedback, a Square Enix PR representative told GameSpot that the assets were created by the development team without the use of generative AI. "These assets were created by our development team without the use of generative AI, and the issues resulted from human error," the representative stated. The company did not provide extensive details regarding the specific nature of the human error.
Square Enix has since replaced the box art in its promotional materials with an updated version featuring a correctly rendered Donald Duck hand, ahead of the game's release on October 8. The original social media post that highlighted the anomaly remains accessible. "Quality is extremely important to us, and updated assets have been implemented where appropriate," the PR representative added. Despite this incident, Square Enix has previously expressed enthusiasm for the potential of generative AI to enhance development efficiencies.