Activision shuts down popular ‘Call of Duty’ fan project

Activision Blizzard has stepped in and shut down the popular PC Call of Duty fan project, X Labs.

According to the team behind X Labs – a popular Call of Duty modded client – Activision sent them a cease and desist letter on May 22 and was forced to shut down all operations immediately (via PCGamer).

“Today, we have received a Cease & Desist letter on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the X Labs project,” the modding team said on Twitter. “We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations permanently. Thank you all for your support over the years.”

Today, we have received a Cease & Desist letter on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the X Labs project. We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations permanently. Thank you all for your support over the years.

— X Labs (@XLabsProject) May 22, 2023

As of today (May 23) X Labs has officially shut down its website, Patreon, and Discord channel. As PCGamer noted, X Labs wasn’t distributing complete Call of Duty games, it was a mod pack, so players were required to have the base game installed for it to work.

This isn’t the first fan project to be shut down by the publisher. On May 17, Sm² — a modded Call of Duty client based on the Modern Warfare 2 engine — was closed down.

The creators behind the software released a similar statement to XLabs on Twitter, saying, “…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.”

A number of other community-made projects have also been shut down in the past, such as IW4X. In 2021, one of the most popular Call of Duty: Warzone stat tracking websites was issued an order to shut down by lawyers representing the publisher, and no longer exists.

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