Ludwig Ahgren has explained why he thinks Disney shutting down Club Penguin Rewritten was “overkill,” and detailed a couple of the theories surrounding the takedown that are taking over the internet.
Club Penguin was the first online RPG many people would play as they joined the internet in the early 2000s. However, Disney purchased the game in 2007 and it ultimately was shut down in 2017.
Fans quickly launched Club Penguin Rewritten as a way to keep the game going until April 13 when it was announced that they received a request from Disney to cease operations immediately due to copyright infringement.
Now, Ludwig has explained why he thinks the shutdown was “overkill,” and went over a couple of the theories surrounding it that are taking over the internet.
Ludwig explains “overkill” Club Penguin Rewritten shutdown
In a video uploaded on April 13, Ahgren spoke about his former love for ToonTown, a game similar to Club Penguin but with a wider variety of characters available to play with. He then changed the topic to the recent takedown of Club Penguin Rewritten.
As he opened the site, he read the disclaimer from the City of London Police that explained it had been “taken over” by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.
“This is like what happens when there’s a drug bust… it’s not for a children’s game,” Ludwig explained. “It’s overkill!”
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(Topic starts at 2:24 in the video)
The YouTube star went on to detail a couple of theories surrounding the sudden takedown, including one that involves the fact they’ve recently sold ads to monetize the project.
“Club Penguin Rewritten staff were making money off the website… they were making money so maybe Disney was mad that they were making money,” he explained. “Disney has this weird thing that even if they’re not dipping their hand into their own cookie jar, nobody else can.”
At the time of writing, the website is still offline and the Discord has been entirely cleared out except for one message announcing the shutdown. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with new happenings as they become available.