Fans of Club Penguin had been elated when the shuttered Disney recreation was resurrected as Club Penguin Rewritten—a fan-made recreation of the favored unique. This week, although, their digital desires had been dashed as soon as once more.

Club Penguin Rewritten was launched in 2017, the identical yr its forebear shut down. The copycat was developed to imitate the unique recreation as a lot as doable whereas additionally including new content material in order that gamers might proceed exploring a pleasant world of anthropomorphic penguins. But lively gamers of Club Penguin Rewritten had been greeted with a stark black and white message from the City Police of London on the sport’s homepage earlier this week: “This site has been taken over by Operation Creative, Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU).”

The shutdown got here as a shock. Disney—the corporate behind the unique Club Penguin, and no stranger to closing other Club Penguin knockoffs—can be concerned within the investigation, in accordance with Club Penguin Rewritten’s creator. The Club Penguin Rewritten staff voluntarily handed over management of the web site to police earlier this week. The City Police of London and Disney haven’t but returned a request for remark.

Administrator Thorn, who runs the imitation recreation, wrote in its official Discord channel: “CPRewritten is shutting down effective immediately due to a full request by Disney. We have voluntarily given control over the website to the police for them to continue their copyright investigation.”

After Club Penguin Rewritten was launched in 2017, it noticed constant growth and development from customers who wish to relive their childhood recollections of enjoying the unique recreation, which was officially closed that same year. It appears, nevertheless, that development got here with a price ticket.

“Of course, running a game like this costs money,” in-game moderator BigChun advised Gizmodo. “Therefore ads were placed on certain parts of the game. We, or at least I, assume that’s how Disney got us.”

Since Club Penguin Rewritten relies on Disney’s mental property, the inserting of ads to extend the sport’s income seemingly violated the unique Club Penguin’s copyright. But in accordance with BigChun, adverts weren’t positioned on Club Penguin Rewritten till the summer season of 2020, that means this investigation and subsequent shutdown didn’t happen for shut to 2 years.