The developer Bungie, creator of Destiny 2, has obtained a court ruling against the cheat provider “Phoenix Digital”. They are known as AimJunkies. This is the first ruling of its kind in this form: Bungie has received money worth a good car, slightly more than 58,000 euros. For a company like Bungie, this is just a small amount. However, the ruling could have far-reaching consequences for the gaming industry.
Bungie accused the cheat developers: Bungie accused the cheat providers, four men, of having developed and sold cheats that allow players in the first-person shooter Destiny 2 to see through walls and instantly kill their enemies. These cheats gave users unfair advantages.
This behavior would harm the player base of Destiny 2, the developers said. They received 6,000 complaints about the cheats and had to spend millions of US dollars to protect the player base.
They wanted compensation for this, hence the lawsuit.
Cheat providers feel bullied, file countersuit
What the cheat developers said: They, in turn, filed a countersuit. The lawyers said that Bungie behaves like a schoolyard bully and wants to intimidate the other side: “The big company bullies the smaller ones.”
The cheaters accused Bungie of having illegally accessed one of their computers and thereby violating copyright.
Bungie countered that this is the standard procedure to find cheaters and is covered by the terms of Destiny 2.
Cheaters are sued directly for the cheats
What makes the process so special? In the past, gaming companies have won against cheat providers through copyright law: The cheat firms were not sued for the cheats and their effects, but because the cheat programmers violated the code of a game to design a cheat code. In doing so, they broke copyright.
Therefore, gaming companies could only sue cheaters indirectly.
However, Bungie’s current process is now specifically about cheating for the first time and was decided for the first time by a jury court, where it concerns compensation for the studio’s expenses.
Jury court rules in favor of Bungie
This is how the jury decided: A jury of 7 people awarded Bungie damages of 63,210 $.
The cheat company has announced it will appeal the case.
Even though the ruling is relatively mild for the cheating company and the fine is manageable, the specialist press sees this decision as groundbreaking and believes it will be easier to take legal action against cheat providers in the future.
Bungie had already collected 4.3 million $ from AimJunkies
The currently won 63,000 $ pale in comparison to the 4.3 million $ that Bungie obtained from AimJunkies in February 2023: The millions of US dollars were obtained due to exactly these copyright violations.
Bungie has legally positioned itself in recent years to specifically sue people who harm the game and its employees in any way. In addition to cheat providers, Bungie has also successfully sued people: Destiny 2 wins lawsuit of 400,000 $ against a man who threatened employees – Expert explains why this is so important
