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James Pond is one of those characters whom people have a lot of affection for but who only seems to make it into the news in the most negative of ways.
Back in 2025, Gameware announced it was creating an AI-filled 'sequel' called James Pond: Rogue AI (a game which, at the time of writing, remains unreleased) and a few days ago, System 3 shared more information on its forthcoming James Pond Legacy collection – along with artwork and a trailer which many suspect are both the work of GenAI, despite claims by System 3 that all assets are human-made.
When Rogue AI was revealed, Chris Sorrell – who, in addition to creating the character, also served as the programmer, designer and artist on James Pond: Underwater Agent, James Pond 2: Codename Robocod and James Pond 3: Operation Starfish – had some choice words to give.
Given that Pond is back in the news, I reached out to Sorrell for comment – and he had plenty to say.
"I'm sure it won't shock you to hear that I was in no way consulted or involved with this 'legacy' collection," he tells me. "For that to have happened there would have to have been someone with at least a scrap of respect for James Pond involved, when clearly, as their every action demonstrates, that's very far from the case."
Sorrell admits that while he has "a lot of respect" for the games made by System 3 in the '80s, he has "personally had no dealings whatsoever with [System 3 boss] Mark Cale" and is "sorry to see them now join Gameware in the ongoing rape-and-pillage of James Pond." He also doesn't seem particularly shocked that System 3 has apparently used GenAI to create assets for the collection.
"The only surprise was to see them push back once people called them out, and not so much that they were pushing back, more the fact that they apparently credit people with so little understanding of game development and so little discernment as to see their 'proof' as anything other than yet more AI slop," Sorrell says, before referencing the Bovine Bomber "workflow" example offered by System 3.
"Why do they think any developer would waste time making an Illustrator version of an already fully-realised character design? If you want me to believe for a second that the final cow image isn't AI, how about showing me a wireframe mesh inside a 3D package?"
Sorrell sadly doesn't own the rights to Pond – these were owned by publisher Millennium Interactive. When Millennium was acquired by Sony in 1997, CyberLife Technology – of which Millennium was the game development division – retained the rights to the character. CyberLife sold James Pond to Gameware Europe in 2003, and the trademark is currently shared between Gameware and System 3.
The fact that he can only stand to one side while his creation is demeaned in such a public manner clearly upsets Sorrell, who has also worked on titles such as MediEvil, Prototype, Ghosthunter, Primal, and 24: The Game during his career:
"I guess it does make me a little sad to see that this James Pond collection is happening. I mean, as a developer, I would love to take pride in having just a few people fondly remembering my work 30+ years later.
Seeing it properly celebrated in an artfully produced 'museum' format would be an outstanding honour. Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story springs to mind as an excellent example of a deserving body of work and its creator being treated with the respect they deserve.
But no, all we have here is a giant reminder of how soulless businessmen have been exploiting a brand for decades, have zero respect for anyone who made the original games, and prefer to use garbage AI over paying developers for any new material. So, yeah, I wish them the worst - I hope they choke on an AI-generated fishbone."
Sorrell adds that the topic of AI is a "complicated" one, but laments that "this whole business shows it in the worst light and demonstrates how unscrupulous businesses are only too happy to cut people out of the process if it saves them a buck."
System 3 has previously come under fire for using suspected GenAI artwork for many of its games, including a new version of DropZone.
We've reached out to System 3 for comment and will update this piece if and when we hear back.