Before the Modern Warfare 2 (2009) mod, H2M, launched on Aug. 16, Activision shut the project down, and fans called out Activision for reaping some unearned rewards from the situation.
H2M was built in Modern Warfare Remastered and features over 50 Multiplayer maps from numerous Call of Duty titles, a large weapon selection, the original progression system, and every classic killstreak. Several content creators were given early access, and the early gameplay footage excited players.
Modern Warfare Remastered coincidentally went half off on Steam days before H2M launched, and the mod’s anticipation contributed to it becoming the third best-selling game on Steam.
Given the sudden surge in sales, fears started to creep in that the project would get shut down by Activision after already players took advantage of the deal.
Those concerns became a reality as the H2M development team announced one day before release that Activision sent a cease and desist letter forcing them to shut down all operations immediately and permanently.
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
CoD content creator Kalei highlighted that Activision benefitted most from this mod.
“You have to buy the game from Activision so they pocket all of it,” Kalei pointed out. “It’s legit to support the older CoDs on newer servers and bring back nostalgia. So disappointing, but not surprised.”
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Fellow content creator LegacyKilla also questioned the timing of the decision.
“Just to understand the scumbaggery of this move, Activision waited until the day before this mod was being released and a day AFTER a Steam sale for Modern Warfare Remastered ended (which the mod required).”
H2M’s shutdown follows a trend of other fan-made mods getting shut down before seeing the light of day or shortly after launch.
In May 2023, Activision shocked the CoD community by sending a cease-and-desist letter to the Sm2 developers, who had spent over a year creating a free-to-play mod using the MW2019 engine.
During that same month, Activision also forced X Labs to shut down as it hosted servers for previous titles such as Black Ops 3.