Devs behind sci-fi survival game Once Human promise to "replace the asset in question" after No Man's Sky comparisons reach Sean Murray

Amid the ongoing slew of updates for post-apocalyptic survival game Once Human, a small, unintentional nod to No Man's Sky appears to have slipped in. An exercise bike, available in loot crates, bears a striking resemblance to an item available in the space travel sim from Hello Games, leading to a comment from Sean Murray himself.

The recent Thunder Overload from developer Starry Studio included the bicycle, which features the basic frame built into a larger metal ring. Besides the design being cool and futuristic, it also happens to look remarkably like No Man's Sky's Base Teleporter Module. As in, to an uncanny degree.

Side-by-side comparisons make a strong case, and fans tweet Murray garnered a rather tongue-in-cheek response. "Joke's on them - we forgot to LOD those rivets," he posted, with a zoomed-in screenshot. LOD refers to 'level of detail', and it means to adjust how high-quality any given asset is, depending on how well the player can see it. In this case, it means those rivets look unnecessarily spectacular regardless of your distance to a portal.

Plagiarism and being a copycat are big accusations to make in game development, a medium where basic assets are consistently recycled. The use cases here are drastically different, since one's a cosmetic for your quarters, while the other's a fundamental quality-of-life feature. But at the same time, the visual cues are hard to overlook, and it seems likely this aspect of No Man's Sky was included as a potential inspiration somewhere in the pipeline for Once Human.

"We will replace the asset in question," Starry Studio said in a statement to PCGamesN. "We are undertaking a thorough review and will be using this moment to strengthen our internal art and design policies. We genuinely appreciate the community members who brought this to our attention."

Beyond this addition to your in-game gym in Once Human, Thunderload Overload brings a plethora of skins and other items to collect. You can find the full list here.

No Man's Sky lead says Sony has a "KNACK for this kind of thing" as people try and riddle out the viral Game Awards teaser – that, or "Geoff is simply opening a hell portal."