A popular Call of Duty mod project called “sm2” has been canceled by Activision following a Cease and Desist letter sent to the developers. The mod had been in development for two years before Activision decided to take action on the matter.
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For those unfamiliar with sm2, it’s essentially a Call of Duty client that featured major content overhauls to weapons, perks, and various other changes. Here’s the official description from the project’s website, which is now offline:
sm² is a modded Call of Duty client based off the MW2 engine with all new features, weapons, perks, streaks, maps, QOL changes and more, all designed on top of our revamped gameplay to create a fun and balanced experience.
Our main goal is to create our dream Call of Duty game. A mash-up of the best COD experiences in one place, completely free and player-friendly, with on-going updates and community feedback to help make this project the best it can be.
We don’t want to just make another MW2, we want to make a fresh experience while staying true to COD traditions and giving sm² it’s own identity.
Here’s the announcement from the official sm2 Twitter account:
Today, 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.
— sm² (@sm2game) May 17, 2023
The sm2 project originally ran on IW4, the game engine used in the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game. However, the devs behind sw2 decided to switch to the more modern H1 engine, which is used in Modern Warfare Remastered.
DEVBLOG #4 • THE FUTURE OF SM²
After a lot of internal discussions, we have decided to move from IW4 (the original Modern Warfare 2 engine) to H1 (Modern Warfare Remastered engine), mainly for technical reasons.
🔗: https://t.co/SQR3dNdA3g— sm² (@sm2game) April 22, 2023
What’s more, a screenshot from the sm2 Discord also revealed that players did not need to actually purchase Modern Warfare Remastered to play sm2 despite running on MWR’s engine. The statement also mentions “exclusive rewards” for those who bought a copy of MW2, as the original version of the project did require players to buy the base game in order to try out sm2.
Also in the discord SM2 no longer required game ownership. pic.twitter.com/PaqkvMhkDF
— Terry (@TerryHB_) May 17, 2023
It is possible that Activision decided to take action on the sm2 project due to the game engine switch. The announcement had been made less than a month before receiving the Cease and Desist letter, with the newly planned H1 version not requiring a copy of the base game. As sm2 could possibly compete against Activision’s own products without requiring the players to buy a copy of the game, it wouldn’t be that surprising for Activision to take action on the project.
What are your thoughts on sm2? Did it deserve to get canceled? Let us know in the comments!