The developer of Destiny 2, Bungie, received 12 million USD in a court ruling against a Romanian cheat manufacturer. The money would be enough to buy the Lightfall expansion on Steam 240,000 times. The court would have awarded Bungie even more money, but they only wanted $2,000 per violation.
What kind of process is this?
- The process started in 2021 and targeted a Romanian cheat provider under the name “VeteranCheats”.
- With the cheats, players could improve their aiming or see through walls. According to Bungie, the site allegedly sold cheats like “Razor”, “HLBOT”, and “Render”.
- After the site operator did not respond to Bungie’s initial complaint in 2021, Bungie pushed for a default judgment in 2023 due to copyright violations and the circumvention of their security measures.
A US court has now ruled in favor of Bungie and deemed the claims for damages justified.
Bungie wanted $2,000 per violation – the court would have even paid $2,500
What did Bungie want? Bungie obtained insights into the data through a preliminary injunction and found that the software had been sold about 5,848 times between November 2020 and July 2022.
Bungie subsequently demanded a high amount in damages: $2,000 per violation – thus over 11.6 million USD, plus further penalties and the assumption of court costs.
This is what they have received now: As the US site Kotaku writes, Bungie was indeed awarded $12 million. The court found that each of these 5,484 violations was even worth $2,500, but since Bungie only demanded $2,000 per violation, they were awarded this amount.
In addition, there were further penalties, so the total bill for the Romanian side ultimately amounted to $12,059,912.98.
The site itself continues to offer cheats for Overwatch and Call of Duty, but no longer for Destiny.
The lawsuit is another blow against cheaters. Since 2022, Bungie has increasingly taken action against cheaters in Destiny 2:
Destiny 2 wins millions lawsuit against cheat provider – receives 1,900 Euros for each cheater
