World of Warcraft developer Blizzard has filed a lawsuit against the creators of one of the largest WoW private servers, Turtle WoW. The suit alleges copyright infringement and claims recent efforts to “cannibalize and disrupt” Blizzard`s official WoW player community.
Turtle WoW is an ambitious private server that recreates the 2006-era version of WoW, active since 2018. It features fan-made expansions, additional playable races, classes, and new zones. The server`s team recently announced Turtle WoW 2.0, an overhaul aiming to recreate their vanilla WoW experience in Unreal Engine 5. One of its recent server launches reportedly attracted 13,000 concurrent players.
Filed in California on August 29, Blizzard`s lawsuit asserts that Turtle WoW`s creators have built “an entire business on large-scale, egregious, and ongoing infringement of Blizzard`s intellectual property.” Although Turtle WoW is technically free to play, it operates an in-game shop where players can donate to developers in exchange for premium currency.
The lawsuit further states that Turtle WoW has “brazenly escalated its efforts to cannibalize and disrupt Blizzard`s WoW player community” by, for example, increasing its social media presence, partnering with video game influencers, and actively promoting its new, infringing version, Turtle WoW 2.0.
Despite Blizzard not being entirely certain of the creators` identities, the lawsuit seeks to hold them accountable. It notes that Turtle WoW claims to operate out of Kazakhstan, a declaration Blizzard believes is merely a “smokescreen to conceal the identities of the individual defendants” and a channel for financial transactions. The suit lists several specific defendants from various countries, alongside “Doe Defendants” whose identities are yet unknown to Blizzard.
In response to the lawsuit, Turtle WoW team member Torta, specifically named in the legal document, stated on the server`s Discord that the private server is “here to stay.” The statement emphasized: “Challenges come to us often, and each time we are prepared to face them. We remain fully committed to delivering the Turtle WoW experience that you`ve come to love over the years.”
This legal action is not Blizzard`s first against WoW private servers. In 2016, they famously shut down Nostalrius, a move that gained significant attention. Notably, several years later in 2019, Blizzard officially launched WoW Classic, an authentic old-school version of WoW akin to what Nostalrius had sought to preserve.