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Activision is officially suing a popular Call of Duty cheat creator

Bullet Club

Member

Activision is officially suing a popular Call of Duty cheat creator​


Publisher says seller has caused “irreparable damage to [our] goodwill and reputation”

Activision is suing the maker of popular Call of Duty cheats.

The lawsuit against Germany-based EngineOwning, spotted by GamesIndustry.biz, was filed this week and alleges that the company is “engaged in the development, sale, distribution, marketing, and exploitation of a portfolio of malicious cheats and hacks for popular online multiplayer games, most prominently the [Call of Duty] games”.

EngineOwning’s cheats, according to its website, include auto-aiming, auto-firing, and showing the location of other players, for a price ranging from €4.49 (three-day access) to €139.99 (90 days).

In its lawsuit documents, Activision argues that the cheats have caused it to “suffer massive and irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation and to lose substantial revenue.”

“Because the COD games are so popular, unscrupulous individuals and companies such as [EngineOwning] frequently seek to exploit the games for their own personal gain and profit by selling cheats, hacks, and other malicious software, knowing full well that they are ruining the experience for other players and harming Activision.”

Activision claimed last year that it had issued over 500,000 Warzone permabans since the free-to-play shooter launched in March 2020.

The publisher rolled out Warzone’s anti-cheat kernel-level driver globally last month.

The driver, which will be released for Call of Duty: Vanguard at a later date, automatically installs alongside a Warzone Pacific update on Battle.net and is required to play the game on PC.

It “operates with high privileges on your computer, able to access all resources on your system while it is running”.

According to an Activision FAQ, this allows the game to detect any anti-cheat software that may be running in the background.

Source: VGC
 

Mojoraisin

Member
140 euros for three months. Yikes - big money being made. Maybe this will be the next revenue stream for activision and they’re going after competitors when they realise there’s some money involved. Aiming “shortcut” 39.99.

In all honesty - good they’re at least doing something although I doubt this will matter much.
 

BLAUcopter

Gold Member
shrek GIF

Shrecked
 

anthony2690

Banned
Wouldn't be better to hire him?
If they sue this person and win, wouldn't it scare off other cheat makers, if they know their life will essentially be ruined.

Hiring and them giving them a job, just means someone else will pop up and make cheats.

Well that's what I'm hoping atleast, if everyone goes and sues cheat makers and goes after them hard, I'm hoping it will make them think twice and realise it isn't worth the risk.
 

Saber

Gold Member
If they sue this person and win, wouldn't it scare off other cheat makers, if they know their life will essentially be ruined.

Hiring and them giving them a job, just means someone else will pop up and make cheats.

Well that's what I'm hoping atleast, if everyone goes and sues cheat makers and goes after them hard, I'm hoping it will make them think twice and realise it isn't worth the risk.

In theory that would work. I can see them being scaried to be sued.
But at same time, it would be too much of hassle to sue every new cheat creator.
The problem here isn't the cheaters themselves, but the cheat creators. Without the cheat developed by the creators, cheaters wouldn't be a thing at all. You blow one and another few pop ups.
But with this strategy why would a creator sell cheats to peasants when they can develop new cheats that bypass updated kernels and show Activision how it was done for money?
 

anthony2690

Banned
In theory that would work. I can see them being scaried to be sued.
But at same time, it would be too much of hassle to sue every new cheat creator.
The problem here isn't the cheaters themselves, but the cheat creators. Without the cheat developed by the creators, cheaters wouldn't be a thing at all. You blow one and another few pop ups.
But with this strategy why would a creator sell cheats to peasants when they can develop new cheats that bypass updated kernels and show Activision how it was done for money?
But then you're sending out the wrong message and rewarding cheat creators.
And then cheat creators will just keep bypassing whatever gets created.

Nip it in the bud and take VERY strong action against cheat creators/vendors, so they know it isn't worth the risk.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Wouldn't be better to hire him?
No.
Cuz if they win the case how many cheat makers you think will have the balls to be as upfront as him.
Sometimes you just gotta make an example of someone to calm the seas.

In theory that would work. I can see them being scaried to be sued.
But at same time, it would be too much of hassle to sue every new cheat creator.
The problem here isn't the cheaters themselves, but the cheat creators. Without the cheat developed by the creators, cheaters wouldn't be a thing at all. You blow one and another few pop ups.
But with this strategy why would a creator sell cheats to peasants when they can develop new cheats that bypass updated kernels and show Activision how it was done for money?

You dont need to sue every cheat creator.
You just need to sue the popular ones.
Effectively this eliminates big cheat creators and makes it harder for kids with their dads credit card to get said cheats, because they will only be available from small really obscure sources.

Right now the big cheat creators are literally a google search away....the smaller ones are hidden in obscure forums or subreddits or discords.

The number of cheaters drops substantially if you dont make it super easy for people to just buy cheats.

Get the cheats right at the source.
Hiring one cheat creator will end up having a second one take his place.....so now do they hire the second cheat creator?
Now you have a third....so you hire him too.
So now youve basically said creating cheats is not only profitable, but rewarded with job after you get caught.
Literally encouraging people to make cheats for your games then.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
I am so bad at multiplayer half the time I don't know if someone's cheating or I just suck. I have accepted the last 3 rows as my own in leaderboards. Destiny PvP wtf
 

Kerotan

Member
I am so bad at multiplayer half the time I don't know if someone's cheating or I just suck. I have accepted the last 3 rows as my own in leaderboards. Destiny PvP wtf
My friend joined us on shipment during the vanguard free trial and he was screaming cheaters 5 mins in. The shit was hilarious.
 

G-Bus

Banned
Man... Spending money monthly in cheats.. crazy.

I guess I can see the interest in it. To try it out. But to do it all the time. Where's the fun in that? Wouldn't even be a challenge. Auto aim.. auto fire..

Go watch a professional twitch player and hold a controller and pretend.
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
What kind of loser is paying a not inconsequential sum of money every month to cheat on call of duty?

You’re literally paying to pretend to win, and spoil everyone else’s fun into the bargain.

Bizarre behaviour.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Honestly why the fuck would you sub to a cheat system? Is their ego that damaged? No one bats an eye if I go 50-4 once in a blue moon and/or get a nuke. Everyone moves on.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
it's COD i really really don't give a fuck if someone is fucking over acti so they bleed cash
i actually like it :pie_roffles: 👆
 

GloveSlap

Member
Cheat makers are scum, but at least they are getting paid. Cheat users, on the other hand, are some of the most pathetic people around.
 
While I don't care for any activision game as there are much better other shooters, but this is great news. That will hopefully put a doubt in cheat creator minds who makes cheats for other online games. Here's hoping to see more and more publishers and devs suing those bastards.
 

Fuz

Banned
Mmmmmm.
Activiscum should protect its games from cheaters.
But it shouldn't dictate what other people are coding.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
So what happens when the cheatmakers live in Russia or China. This is a short sighted fix.
This is a civil action.
Basically Activision wants business to stop in the US assuming this works they can basically file the same suit in courts in other regions.
Eventually the cheatmaker has to work extra hard to get their cheats to customers.

engineowning has servers in the US....Activision basically wants those shutdown.
Ohh and reciepts for how much theyve made - lol
and documentation of how they made the cheats - double lol
and to be paid for damages - triple lol...unless its a really high number and Germany/Brazil agree to some shit.


Live in China or Russia all you want....youll only be selling your cheats there though.

P.S
You really gonna be trusting those sites that tell you to pay from shit in crypto?
The reason these western cheat makers get big is because they seem trust worthy and their sites are not only easy to use but also easy to purchase from.
Alot of them actually have bunch of digital security certificates that are valid.
 

blastprocessor

The Amiga Brotherhood
As one of the best COD players in the world l use to wonder why I'd sometimes lose without any viable explanation. Now l know.
 

01011001

Banned
Sue the people making controller cheats like Cronus Zen, then I'll care because they're the real problem, especially on console.

they are officially tolerated for some fucking reason. developers have the ability to literally ban everyone who uses them, but they don't do it.

Microsoft engineers basically confirmed that these devices can easily be detected but they themselves don't band them and leave it up to developers to do it.
 
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