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Activision pulls stolen 'Floof Fury' skin from Call of Duty: Warzone

The company apologized and pulled the cosmetic intended for Warzone's fourth season after being called out for plagiarism by the original artist.

Morgan Shaver

August 11, 2022 2:00 PM

Activision

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Call of Duty: Warzone has slid into its fourth season “Mercenaries of Fortune” and with this comes a plethora of new cosmetics and skins for players to spend their money on, though one particularly adorable skin that was previously teased won’t be coming to the game as originally intended.

The reason for this is because the design had been plagiarized, with original artist Kim Tae Young (Sail Lin) calling Activision out on ArtStation and Twitter, showing how blatant of a copy the skin was to their work. As a result, the company has both apologized and pulled the skin named “Loyal Samoyed” from the “Floof Fury” Tracer Pack.

According to reports from Kotaku, artist Lin hadn’t been contacted by Activision so no permission had been given to reference their work titled “Samoye Medical” which had been posted back in December of 2019, and they had no idea the skin even existed until the “Floof Fury” pack was publicly revealed. In statements made on platforms like ArtStation, Lin expressed that they felt disappointed to see their work “being plagiarized by a big company like Activision in this way.”

Following the skin’s removal, Activision has issued an apology and told Polygon that, “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 apologize for the misstep.”

Looking at side-by-side images of Lin’s original art and the “Loyal Samoyed” skin, the similarities are not just noticeable but blatant with both characters wearing the exact same outfit in the exact same color, so Activision saying it erred in its process is a massive, egregious understatement.

We can’t help but wonder if this will lead to the company being more careful in sourcing and checking art assets before sharing them with the public, as the situation seems like one that could have been easily prevented. Of course, we’re curious to hear your thoughts on the matter as well. What do you think of what Activision did, and how they’ve handled the situation? Let us know in Chatty.

For more Call of Duty news, be sure to read through some of our previous coverage including how Sony recently called Call of Duty an “essential game” while Microsoft disagrees with that sort of idea.

Morgan Shaver

Senior Editor

Morgan is a writer from the frozen wastelands of Maine who enjoys metal music, kpop, horror, and indie games. They're also a Tetris fanatic who's fiercely competitive in games like Tetris 99... and all games in general. But mostly Tetris. You can follow Morgan on Twitter @Author_MShaver.