'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' Cheat Creators to Pay $3 Million to Activision

Two people affiliated with the notorious Call of Duty cheat creator group, EngineOwning, have been hit with a substantial fee for developing exploits that circumvent the anti-cheat engine used by Modern Warfare 2 and other products published by Activision Blizzard.

Cheat Culture

There has always been a subculture of dishonest players in the video game industry. They can be looking for ways to take advantage of the system or cause difficulty for legitimate players at a high level.

This is particularly frequent in free-to-play competitive games, where it is easy to create a new account even after being banned.

Unfortunately, cheats have still managed to find their way into even the most elite Call of Duty games like Modern Warfare 2.

According to Sportskeeda, players have complained that the recently implemented Ranked Play option in Modern Warfare 2 has been plagued by hackers who utilize illegal third-party software to evade the game's built-in anti-cheat solution, RICOCHET.

Recently, a judge ruled in favor of Activision, penalizing two cheat creators who worked for EngineOwning with a massive fine.

Lawsuit vs. Cheat Developers

Initial reports said that Activision had launched a lawsuit against EngineOwning, claiming the latter's harmful cheats and hacks had cost the well-known video game publisher millions of dollars. The case has been argued in court for some time, and a judge has now decided to release a fair ruling.

Stephen Totilo of Axios saw the ruling against EngineOwning and tweeted about it. According to the verdict, Manuel Santiago and Ignacio Gayduchenko must pay Activision a combined $3 million in penalties for working on cheats and hacks with EngineOwning.

Those involved have also been permanently barred from developing any future software that may be used to violate the Terms of Service or End-User License agreements of any game.

Several publishers, including Activision, Bungie, and Take-Two Interactive, have sued the accused cheat developers in the past for millions of dollars, with some success.

Although the final hearing in Bungie's lawsuit against popular cheat creator AimJunkies has yet to take place, the court has already demanded that AimJunkies pay more than $4 million in penalties for the harm they have caused.

Despite the existence of advanced and always improving anti-cheat solutions, cheat developers have managed to surprise publishers with their innovative new tools and techniques. This has led numerous publishing houses to seek legal backing to put a stop to the practice.

The remarkable and costly verdict in Activision's action against EngineOwning and numerous other organizations that engage in malpractice by providing players with an unlawful way out to dominate competitive games like Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 will have far-reaching consequences for such companies.