CoD Plutonium mod to start scanning for pirated copies following Activision takedown spree

Kurt Perry
Plutonium mod logo next to Black Ops 2 official cover art.

After Activision’s legal action saw multiple Call of Duty modded clients taken down, CoD Plutonium has announced its intentions to implement ownership verification that will scan for illegitimate copies.

Although modded CoD clients have been around for years, Activision has mostly left them alone. That was until May 17 when sm2 was forced to shut down its operations after receiving a cease and desist from the Call of Duty publisher.

This was followed just five days later with X Labs getting the same treatment, upsetting fans who believe the official release of Black Ops 3 is not safe to play due to security concerns.

In an attempt to avoid the same fate, the Plutonium mod has now taken action hoping their plans will be enough to satisfy Activision.

Plutonium Mod to scan for pirated CoD copies

As posted on Twitter, the creators of the popular Plutonium Mod are adding ownership verification that will make sure users and server hosts aren’t using illegitimate copies.

The tweet reads: “In light of recent events, we are trying to show good faith where possible. We would like to inform you all of our intention to add ownership verification to our supported games to ensure players and server owners are using authorized copies of the games. More info to come.”

Specifics on how the ownership verification will work have not been detailed yet. A common method used by multiplayer games is to check the used software against a legitimate copy that is defined in a central server. If the two don’t match it is automatically flagged.

Activision has not provided an official explanation as to why it has begun targeting modded clients leaving many Call of Duty fans frustrated.

Some fans have speculated that it’s due to declining population numbers in Warzone 2, a remastered collection being in the works, or it’s in preparation for Call of Duty to be added to Game Pass after the Microsoft takeover is complete.