Activision Wins $3 Million Lawsuit Against Call of Duty Cheat Makers
A judge has ruled that two individuals who created Call of Duty cheats for EngineOwning is liable for $3 million in damages to Activision.
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) February 22, 2023
(via Axios) pic.twitter.com/hWfIun2JcS
Cheating in PC gaming is a longstanding issue, but there’s a growing effort to crack down on those who create and distribute unauthorized cheat tools. The latest group to be hit with a hefty fine is EngineOwning, a Call of Duty cheat seller whose two developers were recently ordered to pay $3 million for designing cheating software.
According to Axios, the judgment specifies that the cheats were used in several Call of Duty titles, including Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Vanguard, all of the Black Ops games, Warzone, and Warzone 2. EngineOwning also reportedly created similar software for Overwatch, which is another game published by Activision.
As online multiplayer games have grown in popularity, major publishers have become more aggressive in their pursuit of cheat sellers, particularly Activision, Bungie (developer of Destiny 2), and Riot Games (developer of Valorant). Many of these legal cases cite the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as a crucial component in their arguments against cheat makers. Bungie is currently involved in several lawsuits against cheat sellers and recently won a $4.3 million judgment in arbitration against well-known cheat provider AimJunkies. Additionally, Bungie is suing a Destiny YouTuber who is accused of posing as the company to send DMCA takedown notices to other content creators. Last year, PUBG Mobile cheat makers were hit with a $10 million fine following a legal victory for Tencent.
