Activision has discontinued the Call of Duty X Labs division. After funding from studios expired, X Labs, a fan project that gave players access to protected lobbies for some older Call of Duty games, received a cease and desist notice from Activision. The project’s creators said they will “permanently” close the Call of Duty project. Following SM2, this is the second cease and desist for the FPS game series related to Call of Duty.
X Labs would modify older Call of Duty games and attempt to extend their online lifespan, with servers and security improvements to help play them like they were at release. You could also use weapons from other CoD games, with mod integration, anti-cheat, and ongoing support directly from the X Labs team available as well.
“Today, we have received a Cease & Desist letter on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the X Labs project,” writes the X Labs Twitter account. “We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations permanently. Thank you all for your support over the years.”
As of publication the X Labs website and Discord have been completely shut down, which directly follows on from Call of Duty fan game SM2 also being shut down due to an Activision cease and desist letter.
Third-party services like X Labs give players various modifications to Call of Duty games, allowing access to features and support removed by developers. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Ghosts were supported by X Labs, while the aforementioned SM2 was a Modern Warfare Remastered client that remixed various elements from other CoD games into that engine.
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