Gingerbread Exo Suit that Call of Duty players hated was a Make-A-Wish request

One of the additions that was added to multiplayer in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare that players almost instantly hated was a gingerbread man Exo Suit.

Although the suit couldn’t be seen by the player while it was in use, members of the community were quick to point out how silly it looked in comparison to the other suits available. One player on Twitter reached out to the game’s director, Michael Condrey, and asked him to put the gingerbread suit in the next Call of Duty installment, Infinite Warfare.

Condrey responded and said that the gingerbread Exo Suit was a special request from a gamer dealing with a terminal illness through the Make-A-Wish foundation. The player, a boy named Julian, had requested that their holiday suit take on the form of a gingerbread man and the team Activision added his name to the suit using icing.

Call of Duty fans were quick to jump on the design when it was first released, with many of them pointing to it as one of the moments when Call of Duty took it too far. After Condrey pointed out the reason for the inclusion, however, people on YouTube admitted that they “felt terrible for bashing on it” and some even said they would put on the Exo Suit in honor of Julian’s request.

One YouTuber said that he felt “properly like an asshole man,” admitting that he thought the gingerbread man was terrible, but knowing that it was a wish for a dying child, makes him feel terrible for ragging on Activision and the inclusion of it.

This isn’t the first time that the Make-A-Wish foundation has teamed with game developers. In 2004, a game designer from LucasArts, Eric Johnston, convinced the studio to devote their space to a 9-year-old boy named Ben who was battling leukemia. It was Ben’s wish to make and play a game that starred himself and over the course of six months, Johnston donated his time to helping Ben achieve that goal.

In Ben’s Game, players take control of Ben and ride around on a skateboard and attack villainous cancer cells. The game is available to download for free and is installed in many hospitals worldwide.

The next Call of Duty installment, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, is set to be released on Nov. 4 for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.