Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III developer Sledgehammer has responded to another controversy surrounding the recently-released game, by removing the much-maligned ‘Groot’ skin.
The latest entry in the first-person series has continued to use the cosmetic after it was introduced in last year’s Modern Warfare II, much to players’ ire. It’s not because the skin looks a lot like the extraterrestrial Marvel character in a military game that’s becoming full of celebrity skins, but because of its gameplay effects.
Due to the skin’s colors, it blends in with a lot of the game’s environments, making it incredibly difficult to see and giving players who use it in multiplayer a large advantage.
Seeing as the skin, officially called the Gaia skin, is locked behind a Battle Pass, fans are also calling this a particularly egregious example of ‘pay to win’ mechanics.
In response to players airing their grievances during a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’, Sledgehammer wrote: “Adjustments to Gaia and Gaia Blackcell Operator Skins are in the pipeline for Modern Warfare III.
“In a future game update, we’ll disable this item until said changes can be released to all players.”
We don’t know when the update will arrive, or what changes will be made to the skin (although we’d expect it will be a lot more visible), but it’s definitely a sigh of relief for players.
The game itself has been the topic of controversy, with the campaign criticized across the board and reports claiming that the game was developed in just 16 months and initially planned as DLC.
Sledgehammer has attempted to deny that was the case, stating: “We have worked hard to deliver on this vision which has been years in the making. Anything said to the contrary is simply not true.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is out now on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.
