An artist is accusing Activision of plagiarism, as a new Call of Duty: Vanguard skin looks like an exact copy of some artwork they created two years ago. Artist Sail Lin has started spreading awareness about the similarities between the skin and their work, and is trying to get in contact with Activision to resolve the matter. Activision is yet to directly respond to the allegations, even as Sail Lin's tweet goes viral. The skin, titled Loyal Saymoyed, is set to release as part of the Floof Fury pack on August 3. "I am the original artist that the upcoming COD Vanguard Samoyed skin was plagiarized from", writes Sail Lin, speaking on their Art Station account. "Even though I am also a COD player, I am very disappointed to see my work being plagiarized by a big company like Activision in this way."I have reached out to Activision for an explanation and/or compensation, and hopefully the situation will be settled soon."
In a tweet shared by Sail Lin, you can see that the Call of Duty skin almost perfectly resembles the two-year-old artwork. It's not known how these similarities came about, but it's hard to see how they were not made intentionally.
According to fans, both Activision and Raven Software have removed references to the skin from their promotional material. Neither company is advertising the upcoming skin on their Twitter pages at the time of writing, although they are yet to officially respond to the allegations.
Elsewhere, Activision Blizzard also continues to face criticism for its handling of abuse and harassment allegations, most of which were made last summer. CEO Bobby Kotick is still at the company, despite being heavily implicated in the allegations - by both reportedly having knowledge of them but not acting, and threatening a female member of staff. The studio has also faced allegations of union busting since the initial wave of allegations were made public.