Over the years, many esports players have developed modified versions of their favorite video games as passion projects. However, the developers of the original video games have often had mixed responses to their fans’ ingenuity.
Blizzard responded well to community-made Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, hosting an official DotA tournament at BlizzCon 2005 before Valve acquired the rights and created the widely-popular sequel Dota 2. Conversely, Nintendo has taken action to prevent Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project+ from appearing at grassroots Smash majors on multiple occasions.
This tension is still present today with modified versions of the Call of Duty series. Here’s everything you need to know about Call of Duty sm2 (officially formatted as sm²) including what it is and whether you can access it online.
What is Call of Duty sm2?
Sm2 is a modified Call of Duty game developed by fans of the first-person shooter series. Rather than releasing it as a server for an existing Call of Duty game, the developers intended to launch it as a standalone, free-to-play game.
The sm2 project was announced in 2021 and was initially developed with the same game engine as Modern Warfare 2. However, the developers announced in April of 2023 that they had pivoted to the engine used for Modern Warfare Remastered to alleviate some of the technical issues they had encountered in the development process.
The fan game was previously marketed as “the ultimate CoD experience” because the developers intended to combine multiple elements from across the Call of Duty franchise. At launch, they planned for sm2 to include over 100 weapons, returning and new perks and equipment, and more than 40 maps from various CoD games.
Where can you find sm2?
Activision ultimately opted to respond to Call of Duty sm2 less like Blizzard had approached DotA and more like Nintendo has approached Project+. In May of 2023, the developers of sm2 announced the cancellation of the project via Twitter.
“Today, a team member received a Cease & Desist letter on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the sm² project,” the @sm2game account tweeted. “We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations permanently. Thank you all for your support over the past 2 years.”
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
Previously, all information about the game had been hosted on the sm2.gg website. However, this website is no longer available on the internet and typing that into your URL will simply redirect you to the tweet announcing the cancellation of the project.
Despite being in development for two years, Call of Duty sm2 was never released for community members to download as the developers originally planned. As a result, there is no way to find the game online and play it for yourself. All that exists of sm2 now is gameplay footage uploaded by the developers to YouTube.
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