A prominent video game cheat maker has been ordered to pay more than $14 million in damages to Activision and hand over its domain name.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted Activision’s motion for default judgment in the civil case against EngineOwning, which sells cheats for a number of Call of Duty games as well as Counter-Strike, Battlefield, and Titanfall. Activision was awarded $14,465,600 in statutory damages and $292,912 in attorneys’ fees, and the court issued a permanent injunction to restrain EngineOwning from “unlawful conduct” and transfer its domain name, www.EngineOwning.to, to Activision.
Activision successfully proved that EngineOwning continued to circumvent its security systems and sell cheat software in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It called for minimum statutory damages of $200 under the DMCA multiplied by a general approximation of the number of cheat software downloads in the United States (72,328), for a total of $14,465,600. The court found the request to be “reasonable” in the circumstances.
In February 2023, a judge ruled that EngineOwning must pay Activision $3 million in damages after a lawsuit in which Activision alleged that prominent streamers used Warzone cheats. But EngineOwning has continued its work, selling cheats for 2023’s Call of Duty game Modern Warfare 3 as well as Warzone. Activision then continued its long-running battle with the cheat maker, leading to this ruling.
There are now questions about whether Activision will see any of the money it is owed by EngineOwning, or be able to claim ownership of the website. At the time of publishing this article, HWID spoofing and cheating tools remain available for purchase from EngineOwning, which appears to operate outside of the US
Of course, competitive multiplayer video games have had a cheating problem for decades, and Call of Duty in particular has been seen to have a cheating and hacking problem, most notably in the free-to-download Battle Royale Warzone on PC. Activision and other video game publishers face an uphill battle in the war against cheat makers, but the Call of Duty company hopes such rulings will serve as a real deterrent as it prepares for the release of Black Ops 6 later this year.
Overnight, Activision chirp To say that all accounts found to have engaged in any form of behavior boosting in multiplayer or ranked play in Warzone will have their SR reset and removed from the leaderboard before Season 4 launches. “Additionally, as previously announced, accounts that have increased their progress in Ranked Play will be permanently restricted from accessing Ranked Play modes in Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone,” Activision continued.
Wesley is IGN’s UK news editor. You can find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
