Activision Cease and Desist Says Mods Like H2M ‘Threaten to Take Away’ From Call of Duty Devs’ Efforts [IGN]

Activision’s cease and desist that resulted in the cancelation of Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer mod H2M just hours before its release claimed it would have “taken away” from the efforts of Call of Duty’s developers.

Last week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered mod H2M, which sought to revive Modern Warfare 2 (2009) multiplayer on PC and had enjoyed huge interest as a result, was canceled on the eve of its launch after its developers received a cease and desist letter from Activision.

Watchful Wolf, project lead and the person who received the cease and desist via email, subsequently published a video to YouTube in which he claimed that the reasoning behind the takedown detailed in the cease and desist had to do with affecting sales of the upcoming Black Ops 6.

“Essentially, because of the popularity H2M was gaining, and how close it is to Black Ops 6 releasing, and the marketing and the beta, they did not want H2M interfering with possible sales of Black Ops 6,” Watchful Wolf said in the video.

However, Activision’s cease and desist doesn’t actually namecheck Black Ops 6, or suggest sales of the game would be affected by the release of H2M.

IGN has verified the cease and desist sent to Watchful Wolf, which states: “developers are constantly hard at work creating and maintaining the Call of Duty games, and projects like the H2M-Mod threaten to take away from their efforts.” IGN has asked Activision for comment.

Speaking to IGN, Watchful Wolf said his video statement “was an assumption based on their phrasing.”

“I admit it is vague and could just be an excuse of course as it is their IP to handle as they wish,” he continued.

Despite the vagueness of Activision’s phrasing, the upshot is that the cease and desist has killed H2M, and Watchful Wolf has announced he is walking away from Call of Duty modding. Instead, he plans to make video games of his own, although has yet to announce any concrete plans.

Amid this, Modern Warfare Remastered’s recent Steam reviews now read “Mostly Negative,” with many recent comments from players calling for Activision to reverse its cease and desist request.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.