Activision removes another streamer’s skin from Call of Duty

Activision has removed another streamer’s skin (from a game, not their body). TimTheTatman, a prominent Call of Duty streamer, asked to have his operator bundle removed from Call of Duty in support of his friend Nickmercs, whose skin was pulled last week after he made homophobic comments. “At Tim’s request, we have removed the TimTheTatman operator bundle from the Modern Warfare II and the Warzone store,” wrote Activision spokesperson Neil Wood in an email to The Verge.

TimTheTatman, who named Nickmercs as a long-time friend, tweeted that it “felt wrong” for him to still have a skin in the games when Nickmercs didn’t and requested that Activision remove his skin too. “In support of my friend, please remove the TimTheTatman bundle,” he tweeted. Another FPS streamer, Dr Disrespect, also expressed his solidarity with Nickmercs by uninstalling Call of Duty during a recent stream.

After the skin was removed, Nickmercs apologized to people whose feelings might have been hurt but affirmed that he was not apologizing for, nor taking down, the offending tweet. In a tweet on Friday, he said he “had no hate in his heart” and thanked the people supporting him. (Some of his supporters have left comments on social media referring to LGBTQ+ people, including this reporter, as groomers and pedophiles for pointing out exactly how Nickmercs’ seemingly innocuous words, “leave little children alone,” have been twisted into a homophobic dogwhistle.)