Activision shuts down Modern Warfare multiplayer mode H2M to stop it from “interfering” with Black Ops 6 sales, says modder

Last week, the Xitter account for H2M, a mod that aims to recreate the classic Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer era inside of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, announced that they had received a cease and desist from Activision Blizzard and would be shutting down the project. The 2022 remake of Modern Warfare 2 lacks the original’s multiplayer, and H2M was so highly anticipated that Steam sales of the 2016 FPS game skyrocketed as the mod approached its scheduled release date. Of course, it wasn’t a downside to Activision discounting it, but the timing was so perfect that some fans speculated that the discount was a deliberate bait-and-switch by the publisher to cash in on the excitement over a mode they were planning to shut down.

Overall, H2M was planned to feature remasters of every classic Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer map, story levels tweaked for multiplayer, and all the maps from Call Of Duty 4 — 54 maps in total. Basically, it was a lot of work, it took a long time, and Activision waited until the last minute to file a lawsuit about it.

Watch on YouTube

Now, H2M project lead and 'founder' Watchful Wolf has taken to YouTube to speculate on the reasons surrounding Activision's decision, as spotted by Insider Gaming. Watchful Wolf had this to say about the publisher's motivation for sending the cease and desist order.

Essentially, because of H2M's popularity and how close it is to Black Ops 6, and things like its release and marketing and beta process, they didn't want H2M to interfere with the potential sales of Black Ops 6.

But if you're looking forward to H2M, there is a slight silver lining to the story. Hours after the cease and desist news broke, the mod was leaked online via several Discord servers, also via Insider Gaming. “At the time of writing, around 800 people are playing the mod, and it's believed that thousands have downloaded it,” they write.

There is also currently a petition called “Let H2M-Mod live in peace” which has over 8,000 signatures at the time of writing. From the petition:

H2M is a passion project that has rekindled interest in a game long thought dormant, and has actually helped Activision monetize a game many thought was dead. Proof? It’s been in the top 5 of the Steam charts for almost a week now, since it was announced and gained traction.

Instead of sending a cease and desist letter, Activision should thank the creators who put countless hours into developing such an impressive mod for their game.

Consider that Activision probably made hundreds of thousands of dollars off of this mod.

They should follow Rockstar's FiveM example—a multiplayer mode created by players for players—and partner with H2M instead of fighting it. That's what the community wants.

Good luck, kids — although it's hard to disagree with that sentiment. In other COD news, Activision is aiming to reduce the obscene install size for the next entry in the series.

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