Artist Claims Call of Duty Plagiarized Its Upcoming Loyal Samoyed Skin

Artist Claims Call of Duty Plagiarized Its Upcoming Loyal Samoyed Skin

Developer Raven Software just dropped its patch notes for Call of Duty: Warzone Season 4 Reloaded, but an artist claims not all of the upcoming skin reveals belong to the studio or publisher Activision Blizzard. Shortly after the skin’s reveal, the artist shared their original work and allegations, while Raven removed images of the dog from its communications.

On July 28, Raven shared its plans for upcoming Call of Duty changes, events, and add-ons. Among the updates are its new Terminator-themed goodies and a Floof Fury Tracer pack with a Samoyed outfit. Unfortunately, that Samoyed skin for operator Kim Tae Young is the one artist Sail Lin says Raven plagiarized. Outlining their evidence, Lin took to Twitter and ArtStation to share comparisons of their work with the Loyal Samoyed skin.

“I only just found out at the time of the announcement that my work was plagiarized,” Sail Lin wrote. “Even though I am also a COD player, I am very disappointed to see my work being plagiarized by a big company like Activision this way. I have reached out to Activision for an explanation and/or compensation, and hopefully the situation will be settled soon. As an individual artist, I can only do so much, and I have to speak out about this to stop things like this happening again in the future.”

Call of Duty Samoyed Dog skin artist claims stolen by Activision.The comparison @saillin5 shared on Twitter of their work (left) and the Call of Duty skin (right).

 

The Call of Duty Loyal Samoyed above (right) and Sail Lin’s art (left) certainly look the same. On Lin’s ArtStation account, their upload of the “Samoye Medical” concept was posted two years ago, pre-dating the images Raven shared from Call of Duty this week. Lin uploaded several images like the Sammy, with operator-style concepts for other pups like a Bulldog, Shiba, and a Doberman.

A report from Polygon outlined where Raven and Activision have scrubbed the Loyal Samoyed skin from communications. The studio’s blog post no longer has an image in the quality of life section featuring the dog, while an earlier tweet advertising the new look on the Raven Software account is gone. At the time of writing, neither Raven Software nor Activision acknowledged Lin’s accusations.

It’s a pretty crummy situation, and this one looks too similar to blow off in debates over ‘inspiration’ or coincidence. Fanbyte has reached out to Activision but has not received a response. We will update this story should they follow up with a comment.

Author: Deann Hawkins