Following the threat of legal action from Activision, the operators of a fan-made Call of Duty: Warzone stat tracking website have had to shut the it down. ‘SBMM Warzone’ had been allowing players to see data on their total performance in the popular battle royale game.
Activision Shuts Down ‘SBMM Warzone’
SBMM Warzone was a Belgium-based stat tracking website which let users see stats not normally available in Call of Duty: Warzone. These included total kills, deaths, match wins, and similar data. While this data is not available in-game, the operators of SBMM Warzone were gathering the data from the game’s API. Indeed, this appears to be the root problem for Activision, who issued a cease-and-desist order to the website’s developers on the 22nd of March. They had until the 29th to close down the site.
The creators of SBMM Warzone have now confirmed via social media that they have shut down the stat-tracking site. A copy of the original cease-and-desist letter, obtained by Eurogamer, accused SBMM Warzone of a range of breaches; namely, copyright infringement, failing to comply with GDPR, and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. However, according to a spokesperson, the site was only able to obtain data from publicly-visible accounts.
That same spokesperson for SBMM Warzone also dismissed speculation that the demands were due to monetisation concerns. (Specifically, that the site was monetising the Warzone audience through advertising and premium site membership options.) The spokesperson stated that Activision’s demands were solely about privacy concerns. The developers behind the site have, for some time, been petitioning Activision to make them an official partner. Indeed, several third-party sites already have this status. In the wake of this event, they have nonetheless chosen to continue this campaign. However, it admittedly does now look unlikely that Activision will acquiesce to their requests.