Blizzard wins Turtle WoW lawsuit as both sides reach confidential settlement

Blizzard has won its copyright infringement case against Turtle WoW operator AFKCraft Ltd., with a California district court granting a permanent injunction in Blizzard’s favor. Shortly after that ruling, both sides told the court they’d reached a settlement, though the terms haven’t been made public.

According to the court ruling, Judge Stephen V. Wilson ruled for Blizzard on all seven claims in the suit. A later filing says the settlement is meant to resolve the case in full, including additional defendants who either haven’t appeared yet or haven’t been named yet. The parties also asked the court to pause enforcement for 60 days while that gets finalized.

Turtle WoW has been running since 2018 as a free private server based on vanilla World of Warcraft. Blizzard sued last year, around the time the team was preparing Turtle WoW 2.0, an Unreal Engine 5 remake project. In the complaint, Blizzard argued that the server and its custom content infringed on Blizzard’s IP, pulled players away from official WoW, and generated money through donations and related incentives.

There still hasn’t been a public shutdown notice from the Turtle WoW team. Still, the situation doesn’t leave much room for doubt. The court granted a permanent injunction, and the follow-up settlement filing says the agreement should wrap up the whole case. The server’s donation option has also reportedly been removed.

Unless the final settlement includes something unusual, this looks like the end of Turtle WoW in its current form. For now, though, the exact terms are still confidential.