Call of Duty: Warzone is no stranger to wild and wacky character skins. Whether it's Godzilla or the Terminator, Activision Blizzard has opened the game up to all manner of cosmetics that could never be considered lore-friendly, though this is hardly an issue for a game that mashes together WW2, Cold War, and modern-day high-tech weaponry, of all things.

Still, one of Call of Duty: Warzone's latest paid skins comes with some baggage all of its own. Namely, the new Floof Fury bundle includes a special Samoyed themed Operator skin for Kim Tae Young, and it would appear that it's been plagiarized. Sail Lin, the apparent original artist of the concept, has taken to Twitter to explain their case, and it's rather convincing.

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Whereas Activision Blizzard won't shy away from a high-profile collaboration with a wholly different IP, such as the recently leaked Warzone Umbrella Academy crossover, the game's marketplace also often gets standalone one-off skins, one of which is the Floof Fury bundle. Featured therein is the apparently plagiarized Loyal Samoyed Operator skin, which seems to have been heavily inspired by Lin's 2019 concept art, as hosted on their ArtStation profile.

Launching just a few weeks after the contentious "Roze 3.0" skin for a different Warzone Operator, Loyal Samoyed has already been taken off sale after Lin brought the issue up with the developer, Raven Software, and Activision Blizzard itself. The issue is plainly shown in the artist's explanation on Twitter, where they show how Loyal Samoyed takes some heavy inspiration from the original artwork, including, but not limited to, the concept itself, the clothing, and a surprising variety of details.

Loyal Samoyed launched alongside Warzone's Terminator character bundle as a highlight of the game's Season 4 content, but it had been immediately taken off sale once the issue was brought to light. This implies that the developer, too, discovered some irregularities with how the skin was produced, and felt the need to act, though there's been no official announcement as to what would happen next.

While there's always room for doubt in these situations, one would be hard-pressed to doubt Lin's claims. The situation is reminiscent of last year's Magic: The Gathering plagiarism controversy, in that there seems to be virtually no chance of the artist lying about the situation. The artwork was, indeed, uploaded back in 2019, and the new Warzone skin straight-up lifts not just the core concept, but also a wealth of details from its original rendition. Still, an official announcement ought to be pending.

Call of Duty: Warzone is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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Source: ArtStation