Destiny 2 Cheat Developer Ordered to Pay Bungie Over $4 Million in Lawsuit

After a two-year legal battle, Bungie has emerged victorious in its lawsuit against cheat maker AimJunkies. AimJunkies, owned by Phoenix Digital Group, has been ordered by a judge to pay Bungie $3.6 million in damages and $700,000 in legal expenses for creating aimbots for Destiny 2 and other FPS games. The lawsuit began in 2021, with the courts initially dismissing some of Bungie’s claims. However, Bungie re-filed its lawsuit in May and was successful in convincing the court that AimJunkies had violated its copyright on Destiny 2.

According to documents obtained by Torrent Freak, one of AimJunkies’ engineers reverse-engineered the game code to create and sell aimbots, circumventing bans to do so. This violated the software licensing agreement that the engineer had agreed to in order to download the game. Additionally, Phoenix Digital Group was found to be uncooperative with Bungie’s legal requests, deleting records of cheat software, and destroying financial records related to the sales of the cheats. The judge cited the company’s willingness to “conceal” its cheat sales as contributing to a heavier punishment than it otherwise might have received.

The damages awarded to Bungie came to a total of $3,657,500 for the 1,361 violations, with an additional $738,722 in legal fees. While the previous lawsuit found that making Destiny 2 cheats did not violate Bungie’s copyright, the current judge found that the software had violated Washington’s consumer protection laws. The court ruled that players who use cheats have an unfair and deceptive advantage over players who don’t. The combination of copyright laws, destruction of evidence, and gamer rights all played a role in helping Bungie’s lawyers secure over four million dollars in fees and damages.