Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown’s Stock Image Dog is Worth a Good Laugh

Lou Contaldi January 20, 2019 1:49 PM EST

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown's and 2019's first gaming icon of the year is the static JPEG Dog shoehorned into the flying game.

It’s no secret that developers often cut corners and come up with some weird bizarre solutions to make sure their game is ready to ship. And sometimes these shortcuts are accompanied with a good laugh. For a quick example, take a look at Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown‘s stock image dog, which fan communities are having a chuckle about.

Without diving into spoilers, the scene happens about a third of the way through Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. During the visit of a classmate of Mihely’s granddaughter, we are introduced to a sound effect of a dog barking and panting, followed by a static stock image of a dog standing by the wrong group of people. Following that, we see an entirely different dog from a new angle, once again in static form.

But why take my word for it, just watch the video below:

Following the game’s release, this sleuthy corner cutting was immediately spotted. Heck, you can find out a pretty succinct reaction to it (courtesy of YouTuber PatStaresAt) here:

As all things happen on the internet, the joke has taken on a life of its own with a group of memes and jokes across social media platforms. Over on Reddit, we get to see these kind of mashups:

Some are attributing him to more nefarious purposes, with a secret plot to destroy Osea:

Hell, there is even a (semi-serious) petition to make JPEG Dog the mascot for the subreddit dedicated to Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown:

And this is something that the publisher is getting in on — Bandai Namco poked fun at itself, asking a dog rating Twitter account give it a review:

https://twitter.com/BandaiNamcoNO/status/1086218179498725376

Which doesn’t keep in mind the more incidental meme crossovers:

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown only launched on consoles two days ago, and we gave the game a 7.5 out of 10 noting “Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown reaffirms I am way too invested in this Strangereal universe and that arcade flight sims are capable of telling compelling stories about war.” The game will be coming to PC soon. If you are looking to see JPEG Dog for yourself, you can grab the game on Amazon (and currently on sale).

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