A number of fans have called out Call of Duty over a new Operator skin, claiming it looks like a copy of a Variant from DEADROP, Dr Disrespect’s upcoming FPS game. Now, one of the Midnight Society devs has cracked a joke at CoD’s expense.
Dr Disrespect announced the launch of his gaming studio, Midnight Society, in December 2021, and there are big expectations for the game given the Doc’s long history of critiquing other titles and dominating his opponents.
At the end of July 2022, Midnight Society revealed that their upcoming title would be called DEADROP, a ‘vertical extraction shooter’, with some very early gameplay clips coming out.
One important feature in DEADROP though, is the Variants. Players who bought in to the game early will have bought a Founders Pass, which came with a unique ‘Variant’ character of their own and limited to just 10,000 Variants.
As such, all of the devs and people involved have their own Variant too, with all different rarities and traits to set them apart.
On August 15, Call of Duty revealed the Malware Ultra Skin Bundle, which includes a sci-fi-themed Operator skin, complete with cloak and light blue flair added to the skin, and immediately some players noticed that it bore a resemblance to a Midnight Society Variant.
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Looks like whoever created this skin TRIED to copy the Variant of one of the leaders of @12am ..sad. pic.twitter.com/seEpiJIIMv
— Mike ca (@InkedTwoJuliet) August 15, 2022
Some fans argued that there was definitely a clear resemblance and could have been inspiration drawn, while others say that it’s simply a coincidence and implied it’s quite a generic sci-fi look.
The Midnight Society dev in question, that the above tweet references, is Robert Bowling, also known as FourZeroTwo, the studio head and former Infinity Ward Creative Strategist and Community Manager.
He didn’t respond directly, but did post a cryptic tweet, simply saying “at least name it after me.”
At least name it after me.
— Robert Bowling (@fourzerotwo) August 16, 2022
It’s impossible to tell whether the Call of Duty designers who came up with the Malware Ultra Skin Bundle really did draw inspiration from Midnight Society and, in particular, Bowling’s Variant.
Their intent doesn’t matter much to the critics, though, who firmly believe that DEADROP artwork played a significant part in coming up with the design.