A popular Call of Duty: Warzone stats-tracking website has been issued an order by lawyers representing Activision telling the Belgium-based site to shut down by this coming Monday, March 29th. The website’s creators have announced the impending closure in a Tweet desperately asking Activision to reach out for a solution.
Per the creators of SBMM Warzone, the letter claims that SBMM Warzone violates Activision’s API terms of use and infringes Activision’s copyright, among other violations of privacy laws in both the European Union and United States. Activision’s complaint seems, primarily, to be a concern with a potential breach of privacy.
The creators have reached out to Activision to try and meet a solution or start a partnership, but have not received response. “We want to be able to talk to them. We believe there is so much more we can bring to this community,” one of the site’s creators told Eurogamer.
Activision’s lawyers reached out and asked us to shut down https://t.co/aX094FtqB8. According to their ToS, we can’t use their API. We’ve tried to reach them multiple times to become Partners, now is our last shot. Anyone working at #Activision, please reach out [1/7] ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/EBFNSee2R7March 26, 2021
The SBMM Warzone website aggregates data from public profiles, as well as from players that opt in to the site, in order to aggregate and understand the opaque rating system that Call of Duty uses for its skill-based matchmaking (SBMM). Warzone’s skill-based matchmaking has come under fire from the community in recent months, with some players even deliberately dying in order to play in lower-ranked, more casual games.
Players have been very attracted to the site, which has advertisements and does run a premium membership program for between $4 and $6 a month. The premium membership unlocks additional aggregation for a player’s data, such as saving the player’s past game stats and Gulag win ratio. Monetization was not mentioned in Activision’s letter of complaint.
Several prominent members of the Call of Duty community have replied to SBMM Warzone’s tweets expressing surprise or dismay at Activision’s decision, but a general attitude of resignation reigns in the replies. At first glance, the Call of Duty community does not seem optimistic that Activision will solve this situation in a way that the creators of SBMM Warzone—or the community—will be pleased with.
The creators of SBMM Warzone have promised refunds to customers if and when their website is shut down.