Call Of Duty Cheat Maker Must Pay Activision Over $14M, Surrender Domain: Judge

EngineOwning, a cheat maker for video games like Call of Duty, must pay Microsoft Corp.‘s MSFT Activision over $14 million in damages.

That’s according to a Tuesday ruling from the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California.

EngineOwning must also transfer its domain name to Activision, Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald ordered.

EngineOwning is also known for selling cheats for various games including Counter-Strike, Battlefield, and Titanfall. For Call of Duty, U.S. players downloaded cheat codes over 72,000 times.

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The court awarded Activision $14,465,600 in statutory damages and $292,912 in attorneys' fees. Additionally, a permanent injunction was issued to prevent EngineOwning from continuing its unlawful activities and to transfer the domain www.EngineOwning.to to Activision.

Activision “successfully argued” that EngineOwning’s continued sale of cheating software violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), according to IGN.

The requested damages were based on a minimum statutory amount of $200 per violation multiplied by the estimated 72,328 downloads of the cheating software in the United States, which the court found “reasonable” under the circumstances.

In a previous ruling in February 2023, EngineOwning was ordered to pay Activision $3 million in damages after a lawsuit claimed that high-profile streamers used Warzone cheats.

Ongoing Challenge: Activision’s Fight Against Cheating

Despite this, EngineOwning continued its operations, offering cheats for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. This persistence led to the current ruling, reinforcing Activision’s ongoing efforts to combat cheating in its games.

However, questions remain about whether Activision will be able to collect the awarded damages or gain control of the website, as EngineOwning appears to operate outside the United States.

Cheating has long plagued competitive multiplayer video games, particularly Call of Duty, which has faced significant issues with cheating and hacking in its free-to-download battle royale mode, Warzone.

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