Popular Call of Duty streamer TimTheTatman is standing by embattled content creator NICKMERCS after controversial anti-LGBTQ+ comments landed him in hot water with Activision, who subsequently removed his purchasable Operator bundle from the game’s store on June 7.
Other high-profile names have made their stance clear on the topic already, with Dr Disrespect uninstalling and boycotting the game following Activision’s decision. Now, it’s TimTheTatman standing in solidarity with NICKMERCS—going so far as to request Activision to remove his Operator bundle too.
Tim opened his June 9 stream with a statement about NICKMERCS but was otherwise vague on the topic at the time. “I love Nick, I talked to him for about 30 minutes last night. I truly do not think he meant to hurt anyone with what he said,” said Tim.
However, Tim later tweeted on June 10 following his stream, opting to stick by his “friend for years”, stating that it was “wrong for me to have [my Operator bundle] and him no longer have his.” He then requested Activision remove the TimTheTatman bundle from the CoD store alongside Nick’s.
As of the time of publishing, Activision has not removed the TimTheTatman Operator bundle from the CoD store.
The two remain the most popular CoD streamers across both Twitch and YouTube, with Nick’s most recent stream averaging almost 14,000 viewers according to TwitchTracker, while Tim’s YouTube channel is approaching five million subscribers.
The wider CoD community remains divided over the incident, which saw NICKMERCS tweet his thoughts over an incident in California, U.S., earlier this week, where anti-LGBTQ+ protestors and pro-LGBTQ+ demonstrators physically clashed over a school vote on whether to recognize June as Pride Month.
Related: Modern Warfare 2 removes NICKMERCS operator bundle after tweet controversy
NICKMERCS followed up his public opinion on stream, where he reiterated his stance wasn’t purely anti-LGBTQ+, but that discussions about such topics with children were meant for the home and with parents, not for the classroom with teachers. A large subset of the community was not convinced.
The stance taken by NICKMERCS, as well as Activision’s decision to remove his creator bundle from the store, sparked outrage among the community, with fans divided over both the political topic at hand and Activision’s punishment.
While it remains to be seen whether Activision will honor Tim’s request to remove what must be one of their most popular products from their store, no doubt affecting potential profit, the question over the future of the creator skin program the developer is running for Call of Duty must be asked.
It is possible this incident may see the creator program altered or scrapped entirely.
Published: Jun 10, 2023 04:51 pm