According to a creator who worked on the ambitious H2M Modern Warfare 2 Mod, Activision was concerned that the free project could disrupt Black Ops 6 sales.

Watchful Wolf has released a video explaining Activision's cease-and-desist order. This was first spotted by Insider Gaming. Watchful Wolf is a member of H2M, the highly anticipated mod project that will remaster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer using the Modern Warfare 1 remake. Watchful Wolf claims that Activision didn't like the idea of Black Ops 6 being released.

The move was criticized for coming just before the release of H2M, and conveniently after a Modern Warfare Remastered sales that were boosted by the hype surrounding the mod. Watchful Wolf claims that the situation was even more tense and last-minute than it appeared. "We were just a few hours away from releasing it," said the modder. "I decided I would check my email, and that's how I found the cease and desist. We immediately stopped everything, shut down our servers, website and everything else.

Activision's aggressive copyright enforcement is not new to the industry. But according to Watchful Wolf there was an especially galling tidbit that explained why the mega corporation made the move.

"Because H2M's popularity was growing and Black Ops 6 is so close to release," H2M stated, "They didn't want H2M to interfere with possible sales of Black Ops 6."

"For those who say 'you should have made it on [Black Ops 3]' or something similar because they allow mods,' I don't believe any project, no matter where it was, if it gained such popularity so near to a new release, they would have closed it down anyways, I think."

Watchful Wolf didn't share the exact words of the cease-and-desist email but it is a plausible justification. Black Ops 6 was the first CoD to be released after the Microsoft acquisition, and the first on Game Pass. Even a poorly-selling Call of Duty could be enough to secure a developer's future, but Xbox and Game Pass have reached a critical point after Microsoft's studio spending spree over the years and subsequent studio closure spree. This is a big deal for Team Green.

It's absurd, but it's also true: if modders are able to threaten the sales of the largest media properties in history, then the continued health of this massive tangle is so dependent on the success of a videogame. This requires some serious soul searching on the part of a massive corporation with seemingly infinite resources.

H2M's cancellation was a good example of how modders can help the bottom line. It is hard to think of any other reason than the hype surrounding H2M for the recent Steam sales of Modern Warfare Remastered. Activision reaping that benefit before shutting down the mod makes it look even worse.

Different approaches to videogame mods exist in the industry. It's interesting to see that both extremes are now coexisting within the same parent company: Activision here is eliminating with extreme prejudice while Bethesda, a Microsoft subsidiary, tolerates total conversions of games like Skyblivion and Fallout: London, which leverage its valuable intellectual property.

Watchful Wolf has decided to step back from Call of Duty mods, but he insists he still loves this shooter series. "It isn't even the developers' responsibility, it's just the Activision attorneys, aparently." Watchful Wolf will no longer be working on CoD Mods, but there is a silver-lining: the H2M team and Watchful Wolf are considering developing their own videogame.

Watchful Wolf said that "it's a little fuzzy on the details, and our team is a little scattered at the moment." "But it could very well be a combined union of the H2M team and the SM2 team [another CoD Mod killed by Activision] to work on our behalf."