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On January 18, Disney issued a notice to the Club Penguin Legacy (CPL) team to cease all its operations. The news comes just a year after Club Penguin Rewritten was similarly taken down by the media conglomerate.
CPL, launched in 2022, is a "free-to-play, clean-room reverse engineering" of the original MMO (massively multiplayer online) game, Club Penguin, which was acquired by Disney in 2007 and discontinued in 2017 after a steady decline.
The CPL team cited Disney's "continued enforcement of their intellectual property" as the reason behind the shutdown, adding that this has resulted in:
"A significant concern for the preservation and continuation of the original game and its community."
They maintained in their Twitter post that they "operated in good faith," without profiting in any way from the game or the brand.
Needless to say, internet users were disheartened upon hearing the news of the company's shutdown and several took to social media to express their displeasure.
"It happened again": Netizens express frustration towards Disney after Club Penguin Legacy shutdown
As news of the company's shutdown spread, enraged internet users took to social media to express their disappointment. Many defended CPL, writing that it is a non-profit server run by volunteers. Others expressed their loss for losing their beloved game, remarking that Disney always finds a way to "ruin the fun."
One user, @HarleyTonight, who called the media conglomerate "annoying," questioned why Disney would not re-start the original Club Penguin if it was shutting down all private servers. Check out a few of these tweets below:
Here are more comments seen on Twitter criticizing Disney's move:
A few netizens also took to Reddit to comment on Disney's notice to shut down CPL.
Many there wondered why the former would not sell its rights to the game if it wasn't going to re-start the original game. Others called the company "greedy," stating that it doesn't give anything away and likes to keep things to itself:
At its peak, multiplayer online game Club Penguin boasted over 30 million users
The massively popular multiplayer online game features users playing as their penguin avatars who have the choice to play games, chat, or even adopt pets. Although targeted at children between 6-14, older audiences too enjoyed it.
While there was an option for a free membership, players had the choice to become paid members, which gave them access to additional features like VIP games, clothes, furniture, and in-game pets called 'Puffles.'
The game itself was divided into various servers comprising of a maximum of 300 players. At its peak, it boasted over 30 million user accounts.
It is to be noted that CPL is not affiliated with Disney in any way and does not own the Club Penguin Trademark.
In their statement, the CPL team explained that they are in "contact and actively working with" Disney to come to an understanding. They added that they would comply with whatever decisions or requests the company comes up with.
