Sledgehammer Games' Call of Duty: Vanguard has been accused of plagiarism after revealing a fluffy dog skin seemingly stolen from a fan. The latest installment in the first-person shooter series has already received criticism due to its lack of engaging features and failure to evolve the Call of Duty formula. While exciting events like King Kong and Godzilla in CoD have kept the game alive, recent claims of plagiarism are sure to further damage Vanguard's reputation.
Call of Duty: Vanguard continues to receive new content drops and updates, but these post-launch additions have failed to improve popular consensus of the WWII FPS title. At launch the game was closely integrated with the battle royale shooter Call of Duty Warzone, which received a brand-new World War II-themed map called Caldera. Developers Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software have worked to update both games in tandem by adding new 1940s weapons, unique playable Operators and engaging game modes. While both games recently added a new canine Operator in the form of Snoop Dogg in Vanguard and Warzone, an even fluffier dog may have been plagiarized from an artist for use in the games.
As reported by Polygon, the Loyal Samoyed skin recently glimpsed in Call of Duty: Vanguard updates was possibly plagiarized from concept artist saillin (via Twitter). The original piece of art transforms the adorably fluffy Samoyed breed into a locked and loaded soldier, but Vanguard recently began advertising an extremely similar skin. The artist points out multiple key details that their art and the skin have in common, including specific accessories. Apparently saillin has reached out to publisher Activision for an explanation or compensation, and all evidence of the Samoyed skin has vanished.
CoD: Vanguard's Samoyed Skin Is Similar to saillin's Artwork
Publisher Activision believes that the World War II setting of CoD: Vanguard caused sales to fail, but the issue runs much deeper than that. Many fans found that the series' newest entry failed to make substantial innovations compared to its predecessors, with gameplay remaining essentially the same as past entries. The game's single-player campaign and Zombies modes were also widely criticized, creating little reason for fans to keep coming back to the game long-term. While the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 does look promising, only time will tell whether Infinity Ward is able to reinvigorate the franchise.
While claims of plagiarism in Call of Duty: Vanguard are currently unverified, the recently glimpsed Loyal Samoyed skin is extremely similar to saillin's artwork. If saillin was never offered credit or compensation for use of their design, it seems likely that the fluffy dog combatant was plagiarized. The artist has reportedly reached out to Activision for help, so hopefully credit will be given to the true creator of the amazingly fluffy Samoyed concept.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Sources: Polygon, saillin/Twitter
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