Call of Duty: Warzone Removes Skin Following Plagiarism Accusations
A Call of Duty: Warzone skin has been removed from the game and Activision has issued an apology after plagiarism accusations. Over the last few years, Call of Duty has transformed into a true live service game with tons of content releasing at a rapid rate to keep players engaged. Given there's a lot of competition out there, Activision needs to put out a good amount of content to keep up and stay competitive. Call of Duty has advanced beyond map packs to cosmetic items and bundles to try and give a wide variety of content for players to purchase.
Sadly, one recent cosmetic item for Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Vanguard was accused of being a result of plagiarism. The Floofy Fury bundle featured a skin called Loyal Samoyed for the Kim Tae Young operator which allowed players to dress up as some kind of tactical dog-like creature. Fans were enamored by the skin until an artist named Sail Lin revealed that the skin looked an awful lot like a piece of concept art they had created. This created a lot of online controversy as Activision pulled the character from marketing materials before finally issuing an apology/statement to Polygon. The publisher confirmed that it has removed the character from the game and it seems unlikely that there will be any kind of replacement for the foreseeable future.
"We have the utmost respect for creativity and content creation," said Activision. "We love the Loyal Samoyed, but regrettably we erred in our process and have removed this imagery from the game. We apologize for the misstep."
Sail Lin has stated that there "are no good results" and wants a formal apology and a direct explanation, something they seemingly haven't been given. As of right now, it's unclear if Activision will have any kind of other furry character to still sell a "Floofy Fury" bundle or if the entire bundle has been scrapped.
What do you think of Activision's statement? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.