Cheat software provider EngineOwning will pay Call of Duty creator Activision nearly $15 million in damages and legal fees.
In its court case against cheat software provider EngineOwning, Call of Duty creator Activision has been granted default judgement. As a result, EngineOwning owes Activision $14.45 million in damages and $0.29 million in legal fees. In addition, the judge also ruled that the EngineOwning website domain must be transferred over to Activision.
The cheating software developed by EngineOwning enables hacks that give PC players of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 a major unfair advantage during competitive gameplay. These advantages include aimbots, triggerbots, 3D radar (ESP/Wallhack), 2D radar, among other miscellaneous benefits. The software remained undetected by the game’s Ricochet anti-cheat system, though blatant cheaters could still get caught via the manual reporting system. This not only negatively impacted the experience for not only PC players who don’t indulge in any form of cheating but also console players who opted for crossplay.
PC mods are great to have in single-player games, but we strongly discourage our readers from using those that provide an unfair advantage in competitive multiplayer games. It’s important for game creators to ensure fair play as much as possible in their games, and it’s good on Activision for battling it out with the cheat software company in court and winning the case. Unfortunately, though, EngineOwning is just one of several cheat providers that are still readily available for use in many competitive games on PC. Nevertheless, this is a step in the right direction.
We certainly hope that the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will offer a relatively cheater-free experience on PC. It was recently announced that the game will be available day one on Game Pass for Xbox consoles as well as PC. PS4 and PS5 players will be required to purchase the game, however.
