Fans mourn as Activision stomps COD mod project two years in the making: 'Any chance we had of feeling that arcadey style of Call of Duty again is gone'

pcgamer.com:

A fan-made COD client two years in the making has been suddenly and summarily squelched by Activision lawyers. SM² was a modding project that aimed to create a «Call of Duty client … with all new features, weapons, perks, streaks, maps, QOL changes and more,» until one of its team members received a cease & desist letter from Activision last Wednesday.

Today, a team member received a Cease & Desist letter on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the sm² project. We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations permanently. Thank you all for your support over the past 2 years.May 17, 2023

SM² began life in 2021 as a way to make its creators' «dream Call of Duty game,» a mish-mash of systems, maps and modes from a range of CODs. It seemed to be trucking along pretty well, too: Its most recent devblog update (now only available via the Wayback Machine after the Activision takedown) was from April 21, and informed fans that the project would be making the switch from the original Modern Warfare 2 engine to the Modern Warfare 2019 engine, «for technical reasons». 

Given the proximity of that update to the C&D letter from Activision, it's hard not to think that something about the switch to the much newer engine ruffled the publisher's feathers somehow. After all, there are plenty of COD mods out there for older games that haven't been nixed so far.

The devblog also implored fans «Don't worry, we're not closing shop,» which seems like an incredibly blunt bit of foreshadowing for an event which has, so far as I can tell, happened in real life.

Fans have, understandably, reacted unhappily to the mod's closure. Amid the seemingly infinite «press F to pay respects» gifs, the SM² audience has alternated