Activision wins $14.5 million in lawsuit against Call of Duty cheat maker

pcgamer.com:

Activision has won a judgment worth more than $14.5 million against cheat maker EngineOwning, which has also been ordered to stop making cheat software and to turn over its website to Activision's control.

The case began in 2022, when Activision filed a lawsuit accusing EngineOwning of «trafficking in circumvention devices», «intentional interference with contractual relations», and «unfair competition.» EngineOwning offers subscription-based cheat services, such as aimbots, triggerbots, and wallhacks, for games including Titanfall 2, Counter-Strike 2, and several Battlefield and Call of Duty games. 

Activision described the cheats in its lawsuit as «malicious software products designed to enable members of the public to gain unfair competitive advantages,» and sought an order shutting down the service, as well as financial damages including all «unlawful proceeds» earned by the site.

In a ruling issued on May 28 (via The Verge), Activision got what it wanted. After noting that «no defendant has appeared or defended itself in this action» since July 2023, a default judgment of $14,465,000 was awarded to Activision, along with $292,912 in attorney's fees. An injunction against future development and sales of EngineOwning cheats was also issued, and ownership of the engineowning.to domain was ordered to be transferred to Activision.

This is the second courtroom victory for a game publisher over cheat makers in recent days. This past weekend, Destiny 2 studio Bungie scored a jury trial win over AimJunkies. But the financial penalty imposed in that case was much lower: A relatively paltry $63,200, which is still a hell of a lot of money for normal people but, as associate editor Ted Litchfield said, «a rounding error» for Bungie. (When you get down to it, $14.5 million is also a rounding error for Microsoft-owned Activision, but best not to think too much about that.)

Whether Activision will be able to collect remains to be seen. EngineOwning was based in Germany when