Modern Warships Dev Causes Actual Art Storm After Plagiarizing Ship Design

Artstorm, developer of PvP naval warfare game Modern Warships, has admitted to using an independent artist’s creation as the basis for one of its ship designs. The plagiarism came to light yesterday when concept artist Alex Jay Brady posted the similarities between their creation and the ship model in-game.

Brady’s art, a design for an atomic ekranoplan carrier vessel, was shown side-by-side against the in-game model in Modern Warships, called the RF Bartini A-2000-7. Even a casual onlooker could see the similarities.

I did not give @ModernWarships permission to use my ekrano design, but I have to say she's looking great. Much more detailed than my sketches. Honestly if they'd just asked and sent me some $$$$ Id have had zero issue with them using it. Its not to late to do the right thing guys — Alex Jay Brady 🥶 (@AlexJayBrady) October 5, 2026

I did not give @ModernWarships permission to use my ekrano design, but I have to say she's looking great. Much more detailed than my sketches. Honestly if they'd just asked and sent me some $$$$ Id have had zero issue with them using it. Its not to late to do the right thing guys

IGN reached out to Brady for more information. “For me the design is the same, with a few minor differences,” Brady said. “The location of the AWACs dish (and there being two, which I assume has something to do with the technical requirements of the game necessitating symmetry?) the number of engines etc…

“But as there never was a swing wing ekranoplan carrier (for good reason) and every detail aside from that is carried over from my design, it seems cut and dried. I have all the project files including, for example, the lines on the deck. The design makes little sense from a realism pov; the engines wash across the deck, the planes take off backward, not into the wind, I just didn't know anything about the subject when building it and they cloned all those mistakes wholesale.”

Since the tweet grew in popularity, developer Artstorm has reached out to Brady, who will consider “the issue closed” and the images added to their portfolio “as a roundabout piece of contract work” if they accept any offer made. Publisher Gaijin told IGN the Modern Warships team had responded to Brady on X, but declined to offer any more detail.

In a tweet reply to Brady, Artstorm said: “Fair call, and apologies from us. Your design was used as a reference without proper clearance. We’ll contact you directly to make this right.” Brady is currently waiting to see what the developer offers in exchange for using their work as a basis of an in-game design.

To unlock the carrier in-game, players would have to spend between $50-100 on gacha spins. Alternatively, players could purchase it with in-game currency, with the RF Bartini A-2000-7 averaging between 7,000 AC and 15,000+ AC (ArtCoins). The average cost of AC is roughly $100 for 1,300 to 2,000 AC. At this rate, a ship costing 10,000 AC would technically cost $500-700+, with a bit of wiggle either side depending on market price fluctuations.

Many Steam reviews of Modern Warships complain about the pricing of the free-to-play title’s more effective vessels. As one put it: “This game is absolutely terrible. The developers and moderators seem to be far more interested in making money from players than in making a balanced and enjoyable game. They are theives [sic].”

Kirk McKeand is a Contributor on IGN News. Find him on Twitter @MckKirk