Michael Cripe
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered mod H2M, which sought to revive Modern Warfare 2 (2009) multiplayer on PC, has been canceled on the eve of its launch after its developers said they received a cease and desist letter from Activision.
The mod team’s official X/Twitter account broke the news today, letting players know that they are bringing their work to a halt after receiving the letter today. The date of the cease and desists arrival almost exactly coincides with H2M’s August 16 release date, which was announced last Friday. Its X account’s biography now only says “SHUTDOWN.”
“Today, our team members received a Cease & Desist order on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the H2M-Mod project,” the team’s last post says. “We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations immediately and permanently.”
The H2M team’s posts date as far back as July 2023 when they announced the project, noting that they had already been working on a Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer remastered mod for a while. At the time, the team said, “If Activision won’t do what the fans want, we the community will.” Although the Call of Duty publisher did remaster the original Modern Warfare 2 campaign and release it in 2020, it never went as far as to remaster its multiplayer component.
H2M aimed to fill the hole with not only upgraded visuals for maps, weapons, and characters fans have loved for more than a decade but also new content, too. It meant new gun camos and animations as well as a crate of new maps based on iconic Call of Duty locations and more. This blend of old and new driven from the perspective of fans had players excited enough to drive sales of Modern Warfare Remastered seeing as the game was needed to play H2M. According to SteamDB, the 2017 title saw a sharp increase in player count in the last few weeks and even managed to climb Steam’s top selling list (via PC Gamer).
Now, however, Modern Warfare Remastered’s recent Steam reviews read “Mostly Negative,” with many recent comments from players calling for Activision to reverse their cease and desist request. Call of Duty fans in general have taken to social media to express their sadness at H2M’s demise, with some prominent content creators asking for Activision to reconsider, too.
We are begging that you guys reconsider this decision @Activision. To be clear we have zero involvement in this project outside of being massive fans. We were excited to produce an ILLCAMS on the H2 mod. Their team made it a requirement to purchase the original MW2 Remastered… https://t.co/M2hbKvYOE0
— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) August 15, 2024
Yet another reason to hate Activision
H2M looked so good, MW2 MP Remastered with new weapons, maps, camos etc. – a CoD that so many people had wanted to see for years…
And they cease and desist it despite it requiring a CoD4 remastered purchase, complete joke https://t.co/J7SloLaO14
— Luc // HiddenXperia (@HiddenXperia) August 15, 2024
H2m getting a cease and desist a day after the cod sale ends 🤔 still refunding but horrible timing. No chance I’m spending money on bo6
— .tom (@TypicallyTom) August 15, 2024
A few developers behind H2M have also posted their thoughts online, including X user @TheWatchfulWolf and @alstr_. The former posted an apology and then teased that the H2M will now set out to create its own project, saying, “Fine. We’ll just make our own unique game.”
“Genuinely heartbroken,” @alstr_ said. “Over a year of work from a dedicated group of people working for FREE to relive a fan favorite Call of Duty. Not a penny earned despite generating THOUSANDS OF SALES FOR ACTIVISON, all to get shut down AFTER PEOPLE SPENT THEIR MONEY. I’m sorry everyone.”
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.