The video game developer Activision has just scored another big win in their legal battle against EngineOwning, the notorious cheat maker they took to court back in 2022. Just yesterday, District Judge Michael Fitzgerald ruled that several defendants, including EngineOwning itself, have to cough up a whopping $14.5 million for creating and selling those sneaky Call of Duty cheats.
But that’s not all! The judge also ordered EngineOwning to hand over their website, stop making and selling cheats altogether, and fork over another $292,912 to cover Activision’s attorney fees. You can actually check out the full ruling in a PDF here if you’re curious.
Aside from all this, EngineOwning’s site (engineowning.to) is still up and running today, offering cheats like “Aimbot” that automatically targets and shoots, or the ability to see through walls in several CoD games and others.
Previously, Activision snagged $3 million in settlements from two of the individuals involved with EngineOwning – Ignacio Gayduchenko and Manuel Santiago. But they originally sued a bunch more people who just ignored the whole lawsuit.
Yesterday’s ruling called out EngineOwning and its founders, Valentin Rick, and Leon Risch, along with a few others like site moderators and an authorized reseller named Pascal Classen.
Since these people didn’t respond to the lawsuit, Activision finally asked the court to make a decision back in April, which led to yesterday’s default judgment.
The judge found EngineOwning and the gang guilty of breaking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Plus, he said they were “intentionally” encouraging players to buy and use cheats, even though the Call of Duty terms of use strictly forbid it.
It’s becoming more common for gaming companies to take cheat makers to court. Just last year, Bungie settled with Destiny 2 cheat makers for $13.5 million. They also won a smaller case for $63,000, marking one of the first times a jury had ruled in such a matter. Unlike many others, AimJunkies, the defendant in that case, decided to fight it out in court instead of settling or ignoring it.
