How the mighty have fallen
As Destructoid’s resident Club Penguin expert and fangirl, I was devastated to hear the news that Club Penguin Rewritten, the fan-made recreation of the game that has been running on and off since 2017, has officially been shut down for good.
Rewritten had seen a huge influx of players at the start of the pandemic, making it one of the most popular Club Penguin recreation fan sites, of which there were plenty running on private servers. Per Kotaku, the website was actually seized by the City Police of London, and three people were arrested, although reports say they have since been released.
Now, all of the previously-bustling Club Penguin Rewritten sites and communities have been shut down. Its official Discord now only has one message from an admin: “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.”
The game’s website, which had over ten million users over the course of its run, is now empty aside from a statement that reads, “This site has been taken over by Operation Creative, Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU),” which is a department of the City Police of London.
it is 4am
10 hours has passed since the notice that it is being shut down
club penguin rewritten has been taken by the police, no one can login nor access the sitei refuse to leave the mines. they are taking us one by one. we will sit here until the true end. pic.twitter.com/SaqvuwxtlT
— s m o l (@s_m_o_l) April 13, 2022
The police also gave a statement to a Club Penguin fansite, which stated that “Three people were arrested on April 12 on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright and searches were carried out. They have been released under investigation and to aid with the police investigation, they agreed to sign over the website to the control of PIPCU.”
With that, Club Penguin Rewritten is no more.
It’s an apt reminder that Disney has owned Club Penguin since 2007, and as we all know, they don’t really take to copyright infringement kindly. It’s just a shame that it all had to go down this way, especially considering the game still has such a huge fan base. It seems that Disney has long since given up on Club Penguin, though, and I fear this is the last we’ll ever see of our beloved site. Thanks for all the memories, old friend. We’ll miss you.
