Last week Activision ordered Call of Duty statistics site SBMM Warzone to shut down by today, March 29. The site's administrators announced the closure and somewhat belatedly embarked on a campaign to become an Activision partner. The Belgium-based site announced its closure in a tweet and again asked Activision for a solution.

According to the creators of SBMM Warzone, Activision's letter alleges that the site violates Activision's API terms of service, infringes on the company's copyright, and violates EU and US privacy laws. Activision's complaint appears to be primarily concerned with potential privacy violations.

Although no monetization is mentioned, SBMM Warzone does carry advertising and also offers a premium membership program for $4 to $6 per month. This unlocks further data aggregation options.

The co-founders argue that monetization is not an Activision issue, but a data privacy issue.SBMM Warzone is a relatively new site, but it is rapidly gaining a huge reach, and Internet traffic site Alexa has reported Warzone ranked it as the 6,000th most popular website in the world as a recent top result of its statistics.

We contacted the site's creators to learn more about this situation. Co-founder Ben says he is no longer in contact with Activision: "No, never. We tried to contact them, but to no avail. We thought they would contact us in a more friendly way, especially since we are convinced that we would be a plus for their game."

Is he optimistic that they can find a way forward for the site '"It's hard to say because I haven't had a chance to fully hear their story. But with the information I have, I think they are close. I want to believe that they will reach out and we can do great things for the community."

Finally, I asked about the status of premium membership if the creators and Activision were unable to reach an agreement. He said, "First of all, we will try to make the partnership with Activision work. But if it doesn't work out, we will contact you and see what we can do. Of course, we will not hold money that we do not deserve."