Activision nukes another Call of Duty fan project from orbit: 'Thank you all for your support over the years'
It's a bad time to be a Call of Duty modder as Activision has cracked down on its second PC fan project in as many weeks. Following last week's shuttering of SM², the team behind popular CoD modded client X Labs has also closed its doors after receiving a cease and desist demand from Activision.
«We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations permanently. Thank you all for your support over the years,» the X Labs Twitter account tweeted today.
Today, we have received a Cease & Desist letter on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the X Labs project. We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations permanently. Thank you all for your support over the years.May 22, 2023
Unlike SM², which was an unreleased project that aimed to make a «dream Call of Duty» by combining elements of many games, X Labs had already been around for years running dedicated servers for modded versions of fan-favorite Call of Dutys that Activision has long moved on from: Modern Warfare 2 (2009), Advanced Warfare, and Black Ops 3.
As of today, the X Labs website, Patreon, and Discord channel have all been deleted.
The Modern Warfare 2 modded project, IW4X, was particularly popular among a small community of fans who miss the simpler days of CoD. IW4X was essentially classic Modern Warfare 2 with some fun extras, like a few imported weapons and maps from Call of Duty 4 and Black Ops 2. It was no-holds-barred CoD: guns, perks, titles, camo, and emblems could be unlocked with a simple console command and server owners could set special rules (like no killstreaks). I wish I'd given it a go before Activision came knocking.
It's also worth noting that X Labs was not distributing complete Call of Duty games—it
Read more on pcgamer.com
