Activision reportedly filed a cease and desist letter against a fan-made Call Of Duty mod because they were worried it would impact Black Ops 6 sales.
The H2M mod reworked the beloved multiplayer mode from Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and required players to own a copy of the remastered Modern Warfare to use it.
Excitement around the project was so high, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered found itself back in the Steam charts as players bought the game in anticipation of the mod, but just before the project was launched, developers revealed Activision had forced them to shut the project down.
“Today, our team members received a Cease & Desist order on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the H2M-Mod project. We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations immediately and permanently,” they wrote on social media, and updated their X bio to read “SHUTDOWN”.
Today, our team members received a Cease & Desist order on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the H2M-Mod project. We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations immediately and permanently.
— H2 Multiplayer Mod (@H2Multiplayer) August 15, 2024
Now Watchful Wolf, a member of the H2M development team, has released a video addressing the situation. “Because of the popularity H2M was gaining and how close it is to Black Ops 6 releasing, they did not want H2M interfering with possible sales of Black Ops 6,” he said [via PC Gamer].
“For people who suggest we should have just made it on [Black Ops 3] or something that allows mod support, I don’t think any project [that] garnered such popularity so close to a new game releasing [would be allowed]. They would have shut it down anyways, I think.”
Call Of Duty titles have been comfortable big sellers for Activision, but their recent acquisition by Microsoft means there’s a lot of pressure on Black Ops 6 to deliver. It’s also set to be the first Call Of Duty game to launch as a Day One release on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 is due for release October 25, while the team behind the H2M mod are currently talking about working on their own game. “It’s a bit fuzzy on the details and our team is a bit scattered at the moment but it may very well be a joint union of the H2M team and [the team behind another shutdown COD mod SM2],” Watchful Wolf revealed.
In other news, Baldur’s Gate 3 director and CEO of Larian Studios Swen Vincke has revealed developers cut a lot of content originally planned for the game.
