An image in Call of Duty’s latest blog entry shows that the extremely successful skin will be changed with the next update. This doesn’t please all buyers.
It was only recently that a skin for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 caused some excitement: The costume in the colours of the LA Thieves, a team of the CoD League sold exceptionally well and even placed among the top sellers on Steam for some time.
Now the skin is supposed to be changed to bury the controversy with it. But instead, many players are now apparently trying to get their money back, while others are reacting with schadenfreude or just shaking their heads.
Why is the skin being changed?
There is no official statement about the change. Instead, only an image of the new version of the skin appears in Call of Duty’s latest blog post, which is all about the midseason update on December 14.
The reason for both the clear criticism of the skin and its purchase success was that many players expected competitive advantages from it. In the first Warzone, for example, there was already a particularly dark skin that could hardly be seen in certain lighting conditions. This was repeatedly exploited to surprise opponents by remaining unseen in particularly dark corners.
While it is still unclear whether the LA Thieves skin also offers an advantage, it is now likely to be changed for that reason, or because of criticism from the community.
How does the community react?
After it was announced that the skin would be changed, some buyers apparently tried to get their money back. According to the CoD experts at CharlieIntel, this was probably successful in some cases, as comments under their tweet also confirm:
It appears that players on Battle net and Xbox are able to get refunds on the LA Thieves skin. May differ for each person.
– CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) December 9, 2022
Among the players who didn’t buy the skin (, on the other hand, schadenfreude is spreading). Many assume that the skin was only bought so often because they hoped for a playful advantage. (On Reddit) the upcoming change is discussed in detail. For example, (E-rye) points out that this is exactly the situation they would have predicted:
I distinctly remember someone in this sub-Reddit predicting the exact same situation. There’s a skin that apparently gives an advantage, the sweaters go crazy for it, Activision makes decent dough and then fixes the skin to remove the advantage.
The accusation is often made that the developers or the publisher intentionally released such a skin in order to rake in a lot of money and planned from the start to change it shortly afterwards. Thus, for example, comments (jibberDAjabber):
All part of the master plan to make money.
So it is then sometimes also (considered dishonest) that the previously purchased item is changed afterwards, regardless of whether it offers an advantage or not. Lastly, there are players who like the new version of the skin (even better) and only want to buy it now.
Not only was there a lot of criticism about the sale of the skin, but also after the problematic release of Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2. But Activision can probably care less about that!
More news on Warzone 2 and MW2
Besides the big discussions about a single skin, there is of course other news for CoD fans. Because already on 14 December, Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 will continue with Season 1 Reloaded, which brings new content such as the first co-op raid:
What do you think of the skin controversy? Do you see more of a mistake with the buyers or with the developers? Or do you just don’t care about the whole thing? Feel free to write your opinion in the comments!
