Even though Activision sent a cease and desist order to the developers of H2M, the Modern Warfare 2 mod that was meant to make it look like a remaster, it looks like the project wasn’t 100% taken down after all. HorizonMW released as an open-source project aimed to revive the popular mod with several improvements, including a voice-chat system, anti-cheat, frequent updates, and more content down the road.
Similar to the original H2M mod, the only condition with HorizonMW is that the user must own a copy of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered on Steam. This allows fans to access all of the new features the project promises. H2M was a popular Modern Warfare Remastered mod (source: Sportskeeda). The goal of the mod was to deliver fans a host of content that the Call of Duty community requested. It brought in a host of maps, weapons, killstreaks from different Call of Duty installments, an improved leveling system, and more for absolutely free (minus the cost of Modern Warfare Remastered).
The mod acted as a mixing pot for classic Call of Duty mechanics and content. Activision, however, didn’t take kindly to the efforts of the community. This led to a cease and desist order on the project, compelling its developers to shut down the project at once. This was met with negative reactions from the community and players were certainly unhappy with Activision. Most of the community had stated this was in response to H2M launching near the release date of Black Ops 6 due to release the same month, and Activision feared it would help kill sales of the new game. However, Activision’s cease and desist doesn’t actually namecheck Black Ops 6, or suggest sales of the game would be affected by the release of H2M.
That, however, did not stop the mod from coming out after all. The mod was released under a new name, HorizonMW, and was released as an open-source project. HorizonMW was also promising played that everything H2M was to offer would be brought in through HorizonMW as it evolves in time.
In today’s age, now with the release of Black Ops 7, HorizonMW is still active, however the player base has dropped quite significantly. The mod has not seen any set back or cease and desist orders from Activision since release. Many servers still remain active within the game, but majority show 0 players, some still under 10 players at a time, even though most of the servers are capped at 32 players. But the real question remains: will HorizonMW see an increase in players, or will it eventually shut down due to inactivity?
Author: HLX Typhon 7