Sledgehammer Games is finally working on a fix for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s infamous Gaia Operator outfit — a.k.a. the “Groot” skin.
The skin, which is available as an alternate costume for the Nova Operator, has been criticized by the Call of Duty community ever since its debut with Modern Warfare 2 Season 6 in late September. Unlike other outfits, the tree-like get-up has been said to be harder to spot during battle due to the many holes in its torso.
Although the skin was adjusted to improve visibility shortly after launch, it seems the release of Modern Warfare 3 on November 10 led to more frustrations. The newest entry in the Call of Duty series allows players to bring their unlocks, weapons, and purchases from the previous installment, which means the Gaia skin is back, too.
Sledgehammer was unsurprisingly asked about potential plans to address the complaints related to the “Groot” skin’s appearance during a recent multiplayer-focused Reddit AMA. User Deagil_ asked one of the many with questions about how the Activision developer was looking to the future: “Oh the biggest one, what are you going to do about the Gaia skin and the problems it has brought forward to MW3 from MW2?”
Sledgehammer’s response should help ease the minds of those who have run into issues with the Nova skin: “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.”
It’s not clear how long the Gaia cosmetic will be unavailable for use or how Sledgehammer will address the complaints.
Modern Warfare 3’s launch has suffered from more than just see-through skins. At launch, some players found spawn issues with a few of the entry’s maps. Sledgehammer quickly moved to pull affected maps out of rotation from certain game modes to address these issues.
In our review for Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer component, we praised some of the finer gameplay tweaks but still wished it came with bigger changes to push the series forward.