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After the recent shutdown of Sm2, another Call of Duty mod called Call of Duty X Labs has been sent a cease and desist letter by Activision Publishing. The project developers have decided to shut down all operations permanently after receiving the letter. The X Labs site has been taken down along with its Discord server. This is the second such incident in this month where fan-made projects for the franchise have been shut down.
What was the X Labs mod for Call of Duty?
The X Labs mod would allow players to access older Call of Duty games and play them as they were when released. You also had access to weapons, maps from other Call of Duty games, along with mod integration, anti-cheat and other features like custom emblems and calling cards. The affiliated BOIII client was also taken down after they received a similar cease and desist letter from Activision Publishing. X Labs took to Twitter to make the announcement, tweeting out, “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.”
As of now, the X Labs website and Discord have been taken offline. Content creators like FaZe Blaze and Ramos along with SoaR Gaming’s Crude have tweeted out about the news. Blaze tweeted out saying, "DO NOT BUY THE NEXT CALL OF DUTY GAME". Fans using the X Labs mod have understandably expressed outrage at Activision hunting down fan-favorite Call of Duty mods.
Third-party services like Sm2 and X Labs give players opportunity to access features that may have been taken down by the developer and customize their Call of Duty experience further. X Labs let players mod games like Modern Warfare 2 and Ghosts while Sm2 did so for Modern Warfare Remastered. Game modding has always been a contentious issue with some developers choosing to turn a blind eye while others crack down hard on modders. It is unclear what other mods will be in Activision’s crosshair next but many fear about the status of other popular Call of Duty mods like Plutonium.
