Ironmouse Drops Neverness to Everness Sponsorship Over AI Use

VTuber Ironmouse terminated her Neverness to Everness sponsorship saying her team was "lied to" about AI use, and voice actors are publicly distancing themselves from the gacha game days after its launch. The trigger was players spotting distorted textures on in-game ad hoardings in Heathereau — telltale generative-AI artifacts buried in the city's billboards. Hotta Studio then issued a statement claiming all characters and narrative are human-made and that AI was used only for "a limited selection of background and environmental assets," pulled one animation, and reworked others. The pattern here is the actual story: this is the second high-profile gacha game in two months where the AI disclosure came after the partnership contracts were signed, and the talent class is starting to treat undisclosed genAI as grounds to walk on day one.