The site, called EngineOwning, is being sued by the Activision Blizzard publisher of Call of Duty for exemplary and punitive damages.

Activision Blizzard started the year well, filing the lawsuit on the second business day of the year, January 4, in the US District Court for the Central District of California. It covers complaints about trafficking in circumvention devices, intentional interference with contractual relations, and unfair competition.

The complaint describes EngineOwning, which is based in Germany, as ” 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”. A few examples: aimbot (automatic aiming), automatic firing, showing other players’ locations. The pricing is a bit steep: €4.5 for three days, or €140 for three months (or 90 days to be precise).

The publisher argues that the cheats provided by EngineOwning have caused massive and irreparable damage to Activision Blizzard’s reputation and a significant loss of revenue. That’s why Bobby Kotick and his company (because yes, he is still the CEO of ActiBlizz… ) want more money. Here’s another quote from the lawsuit: “Because the COD games are so popular, unscrupulous individuals and companies such as [EngineOwning] frequently seek to exploit the games for their 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 Blizzard.”

Activision Blizzard has already banned more than half a million accounts from Call of Duty: Warzone (and it has been maintained in Call of Duty: Vanguard: a ban from previous episodes remains in place; the Ricochet anti-cheating system is also active), and last year it got rid of User Vision, an aimbot tool. EngineOwning also offers cheats for several other games (Halo Infinite, Splitgate, Titanfall 2, Battlefield V…).

Source: Gamesindustry