Activision, the publishing giant behind call of Duty, has filed a lawsuit against one of the largest companies that created and sold Call of Duty: Warzone The cheater named EngineOwning and an individual who allegedly worked for the group, according to court records filed Tuesday.
The news marks an escalation of the situation Activision’s strategy be opposed to call of Duty,especially call of duty: warzone, deceive developer. The company has previously issued legal threats to deceived creators, For example, a company called CxCheat.net in 2020This time Activision has filed a formal lawsuit against the company in court.
“Cod [Call of Duty] The game is designed to be fun and fair to all players.When players use exploits such as cheating software [EngineOwning], this behavior disrupts game balance and, in many cases, causes non-cheating players to drop out of the game in frustration,” the lawsuit, filed in the Central District of California, reads. “Extensive cheating can also lead to negative social media posts and media headlines, which could affect consumer confidence. As a result, Activision has and will continue to spend significant resources to combat cheating in its games. Despite these efforts, the defendants’ sale and distribution of the fraudulent software has resulted in Activision causing substantial and irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation, as well as significant loss of revenue. “
edge The lawsuit was first reported on Tuesday.
“They’re the biggest COD cheat provider ever,” says Zebleer, a company administrator compete war zone Spoofing provider called Phantom Overlay, which tells the motherboard that it refers to EngineOwning.
Are you one of the people named in this lawsuit? Do you know anything else about EngineOwning? We would love to hear from you. From a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely via Signal (+44 20 8133 5190), Wickr (via josephcox) or email joseph.cox@vice.com.
EngineOwning Offers war zone Cheating at various different prices, such as 4.49 euros for three-day access, up to 39.99 euros for 90 days, the lawsuit alleges. Cheating can include targeting a bot, which automatically snaps the cheater’s reticle to enemies, making killing them trivial; Extrasensory Perception (ESP), which allows the cheater to see through walls, triggering the bot to automatically fire weapons for the cheater .
The lawsuit names specific individuals Activision says are associated with EngineOwning, including Valentin Rick, also known as Skyfail, the group’s alleged leader. Activision said it contacted Rick in 2018 and 2020 to discuss EngineOwning, at which point Rick claimed to have sold the cheating developer site to someone else.
“Rick has never provided any evidence that such sales occurred, and Activision was informed and believed, and on this basis alleges, that Rick has continued to manage and operate EO and the EO website at all times in connection with this lawsuit,” the lawsuit reads. .
The lawsuit also names Leonard Bygla, also known as Reganmian and Noodleman, as the alleged administrator; Leon Frisch, aka Kraisie, as the alleged lead moderator; and Ignacio Gayduchenko, also known as Weather and Kokole, as the alleged EngineOwning A coder and developer for ; Marc-Alexander Richts, aka x0000x and Twenty, allegedly involved in the sale of the software; Alexander Kleeman, also known as A200k, allegedly a distributor, also fulfilling some administrative functions. At least some were in Germany and Spain, the lawsuit said.
Activision believes that EngineOwning Software UG itself and co-defendant CMM Holdings SA are German businesses located in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Bavaria.
The lawsuit also targets a series of people under pseudonyms because their real identities are not known. These include so-called coders, senior members and staff.
Specifically, Activision believes the defendants were fully aware of EngineOwning’s cheating violations call of duty terms of use. Activision alleges that the defendants trafficked circumvention devices, intervened internationally in contractual relationships, and engaged in unfair competition.
Activision’s lawsuit asks the court to compel the defendants to turn off EngineOwning’s cheating software, provide Activision with the source code for the cheats, provide Activision with information on any and all products sold in the United States, as well as damages for infringement of copyright laws, and for Activision to repay the illegal proceeds.
Zebleer, the administrator of Phantom Overlay, told Motherboard in an email, “The only winners today are the lawyers who keep getting paid for their endless failure to prosecute cheaters. Activision doesn’t stop cheaters in this way. They need to go the anti-cheat route to do this or they will continue to fail. These cheat providers often dodge legal threats and charges, and if they can’t, they’ll rebrand.”
Zebleer said they’re not worried about Activision coming up next, claiming that Phantom Overlay members have protected their identities.
“I’m not sure why [EngineOwning] Their identities are not protected. Maybe they felt invincible because they were German. I’m a very privacy-conscious person, so I never let the country I live in dictate my level of privacy,” they added.
Activision did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cheat developers have been targeting call of Duty Franchise, but hacking and cheating appears to be reaching new popularity in its free spin-off mode war zone Launched in March 2020. Cheating has become so rampant Those high profile streamers are out of the game, and Activision and war zone Developer Raven hyped A new anti-cheat system called Ricochet, while building the game update.
Interestingly, cheaters are war zone After the launch of Ricochet. But the reputational damage to Activision remains.
“Defendant’s conduct caused Activision a degree of damage, the amount of which will be proven at trial. Activision estimates that such damage could be in the millions of dollars. Unless the defendant is initially or permanently barred, Activision will continue to be seriously harmed by cheating software,” the lawsuit added.
in December, workers in war zone Developer Raven quits Protest the treatment of QA team members fired by the company.
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