Upon visiting Club Penguin Rewritten’s website and viewing its shutdown announcement, popular YouTube streamer Ludwig candidly expressed his opinion over the revived game’s sudden disappearance.
Club Penguin was among the most popular MMORPGs of its time, primarily targeted toward younger audiences. After achieving its initial popularity, the game was bought by Disney in 2007. Ten years later, Disney shut down Club Penguin and pulled the plug on all active servers.
The initiative to revive the beloved MMO, Club Penguin Rewritten, was a fan project that kept the game going even after its closure. This version of the game was fairly successful until April 13, when Disney issued a request to halt operations on the grounds of copyright infringement.
In a video released just shortly after the website’s shutdown, Ludwig gave his opinion on the situation.
“This is like what happens when there’s a drug bust, like when you find the biggest ketamine dealer in London,” Ludwig said after reading the PIPCU’s statement. “It’s not for a children’s game. It’s overkill, but they’ve taken them down.”
The streamer went on to discuss the two primary theories as to why Disney only recently issued the takedown. Ludwig explained that because banner advertisements were seen on the site, website staff were likely profiting off of the service, causing Disney to react. The YouTube streamer condemned Disney’s actions, saying that “Disney has this weird thing where even if they aren’t dipping their hand into their own cookie jar, no one else can.”
Ludwig also went on to explain the more far-fetched theory that other versions of Club Penguin Rewritten exists that removed all filters. Upon theoretically coming across one of these revivals and promptly shutting it down, Disney went on to axe all other rewrites of Club Penguin.
No matter the reason for the game’s removal, Ludwig insisted that both Disney’s takedown of the website and the PIPCU’s verbiage was too extreme for a children’s game.
