Call of Duty pulls DLC after plagiarism accusation

Activision Blizzard has pulled a cosmetic skin from Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone after a concept artist accused the publisher of plagiarism, according to Polygon.

The artist, Sail Lin, has posted a series of "Monster Army" concepts on an ArtStation profile depicting various gun-toting soldiers and police with animal heads.

The artist said one such piece, Samoye Medical served as the inspiration for Vanguard's Loyal Samoyed skin, which featured the head of a Samoyed on a character with much of the same gear shown in the concept art.

"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," the artist explained in a statement posted to ArtStation.

Activision Blizzard has since removed references to the Loyal Samoyed skin from its site and social media accounts, and confirmed to Polygon that it had pulled the content from the game.

"We have the utmost respect for creativity and content creation," the company said. "We love the Loyal Samoyed, but regrettably we erred in our process and have removed this imagery from the game. We apologize for the misstep."