“At least name it after me” said the original designer
Activision has been accused of copying the design of an NFT from Dr Disrespect’s Deadrop to create a skin in Call Of Duty: Warzone and Vanguard.
Launched earlier this week, the new Doomsayer skin is available for players of both Call Of Duty: Warzone and Vanguard as part of the Malware Ultra Skin tracer pack, which costs 2400 COD points (£16.79).
The new skin features a glowing, pale blue holographic skull, with people comparing it to art seen to promote Midnight Society’s upcoming shooter Deadrop.
Back in July, early backers of the Midnight Society project were given the chance to own “VisorCortex IDs,” which are NFTs that grant unique visor skins to use in-game.
The initiative was announced by game developer Robert Bowling who also showed off his unique skin – the one that people think “inspired” the new Doomsayer skin.
I think @fourzerotwo (Robert Bowling) is going to be happy to see that Activision just added his own skin in #Vanguard 🤡
Maybe not… ->🙃 pic.twitter.com/vZTyWIp2pZ
— 𝗡𝗛' -Hotel Six- 🧼🥇 (@ModenasHD) August 16, 2022
Bowling would have been well known to Call Of Duty studio Infinity Ward, considering he previously worked at the studio as a creative strategist.
Bowling acknowledged the similarities by tweeting “at least name it after me”.
He told Kotaku: “I found out about this due to my mentions blowing up from our community tagging me in their replies,” before sending the publication a photo of a legendary-tier Call Of Duty sniper rifle called “Corporate Theft.”
Back in July, artist Sail Lin took to Twitter to allege their original work from 2019 had been stolen by Activision for the “Loyal Samoyed” skin in Call of Duty: Warzone.
I have to explain this matter, COD Vanguard Samoye skin plagiarism.https://t.co/ltHTSNhEtf #CallofDutyVanguard #COD #Vanguard @Activision pic.twitter.com/OD2M4WNUms
— saillin (@saillin5) July 29, 2022
At the time, Lin had reached out to Activision for an “explanation or compensation” and hoped the situation would be “settled soon”. They said that despite being a Call of Duty player themselves, they were “very disappointed” to see their work stolen by a “big company like Activision in this way.”
Activision then released a statement taking accountability, saying: “We have the utmost respect for creativity and content creation. We love the Loyal Samoyed, but regrettably we erred in our process and have removed this imagery from the game. We apologise for the misstep.”
In other news, it’s been confirmed that fans will be able to play Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s campaign mode a week early, if they’ve pre-ordered.
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