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The WWE 2K24 cover athletes were revealed on Monday. Cody Rhodes, and Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley appear on the Standard and Deluxe Editions of the game.
The Forty Years of WrestleMania Edition features several of the biggest names in WWE and WrestleMania history on the cover. This cover, however, generated some controversy as some thought the artwork looked AI-created. The conversation only got louder as a Twitter user named davidj_alaniz wrote a post “complaining” about AI being used for the art.
His “complaints” were that an image on John Cena’s shirt was smudged, Steve Austin was missing two fingers, and Hulk Hogan was in the game.
If you haven’t picked up on it yet, the post was meant as a joke, evidenced by the missing (middle) fingers and keeping Hogan in the game. Some got the joke, but others were upset about it, including the real-life artist who created the artwork for this edition of the game.
Jonathan Bartlett is a Brooklyn-based artist who did the art for the Forty Years of WrestleMania Edition of WWE 2K24. He’s a talented artist who has also done graphics for WWE’s Mattel action figures and FanDuel’s Kick Of Destiny Super Bowl campaign.
Bartlett responded to the (now-deleted) post from davidj_alaniz, confirming that he created the artwork in question.
“ummmmmm HI. this is 100000000% human made, by me,” Bartlett wrote.
“[B]ut honestly, im gonna triple down on my FUCK A.I, because this is what we deal with now,” Bartlett wrote (sic) in a follow-up post. “Skepticism from others that will be quick to jump to a conclusion with out giving it thought. And now here I am defending my hard earned AND learned craft of picture making.”
As seen in the reference images, Cena’s shirt has a drawing of him over the “Never Give Up” text, creating the “smudge.” WWE has also been censoring Austin’s middle fingers for years. As for Hogan, he’s a huge part of the first decade of WrestleMania. Like him or not, leaving him out of a mode celebrating 40 years of WWE would have been a noticeable omission.
So there you have it; AI cannot be blamed (this time) for creating artwork for a major company. The actual artist, however, should be praised for a job well done instead of dealing with accusations that the images aren’t genuine.
WWE 2K24 will be released on March 8. The Deluxe Edition will release three days early with Early Access on March 5.
Read More: WWE 2K24: Cover Athletes, Showcase, New Match Types, Release Date, And More Revealed
