Activision remove TimTheTatman Operator Bundle from Call of Duty

Activision has removed popular streamer Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar’s Operator skin bundle from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone after he asked for it to be pulled out of the game to support his friend Nicholas “Nickmercs” Kolcheff.

Popular streamer Timothy “TimTheTatman” Betar requested that his Operator package be removed as a show of solidarity with his friend Nicholas “Nickmercs” Kolcheff, whose Operator skin had been removed after a massive uproar over an alleged anti-LGBTQ comment. Activision pulled the skin bundle from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone in response to the creator’s request, stirring the controversy that has already drawn the attention of the entire gaming community.

Why Tim requested to remove his skin bundle?

The drama surrounding Nickmercs started on June 7, NICKMERCS reacted to a video showing anti-LGBT protestors attacking pro-LGBT demonstrators outside a school board meeting, saying that LGBT supporters should “leave the children alone. In the hours following his initial tweet, Nickmercs faced heavy backlash from the LGBTQ community and was also called out by several fellow content creators and big figures within the Call of Duty community.

The criticism that his Tweet sparked pushed Activision to remove the Nickmercs bundle from the store, leaving the community divided over the issue, with some supporting the FaZe star and others supporting the developer’s action. Other well-known streamers have also shown support for Nickmercs, including TimTheTatman and Dr. Disrespect.

In response to Activision’s decision, Dr. Disrespect uninstalled Warzone 2 during a live stream and urged the company to apologize to Nickmercs. While Tim refrained from responding to Nickmerc’s initial tweet, he did express his support for his fellow streamer.

TimTheTatman, who is Nickmercs’ close buddy, tweeted that it “felt wrong” for him to continue having skin in the games when Nickmercs didn’t, and he asked Activision to remove his skin as well. Activision complied with Tim’s request and took his skin bundle off of both games. However, the players who bought either of the two packages before they were removed from Modern Warfare 2 will still be able to use them. 

With TimTheTatman, a prominent member of the Call of Duty streaming community with more than 4.5 million members, publicly supporting Nickmercs, the controversy shows no signs of dying down. Considering all that has transpired over the past week, it seems highly unlikely that Activision would bring back the skin package or add other content-creator skin bundles to the game any time soon.

Header: Screengrab via TImTheTatman