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Activision has filed a lawsuit in the Central District of California against cheat distributor EngineOwning.
As spotted by The Verge, Activision filed its lawsuit against EngineOwning on January 4 as part of a wider push to limit and shut down software that allows players to cheat in Call of Duty: Warzone and other games released by the publisher.
In the lawsuit, EngineOwning is described as a “commercial online business enterprise consisting of a German business entity and numerous individuals” and is accused of engaging in the “development, sale, distribution, marketing, and exploitation of a portfolio of malicious cheats and hacks for popular online multiplayer games.”
By filing the lawsuit, Activision says that it is seeking to “put a stop to unlawful conduct by an organization that is distributing and selling for profit numerous malicious software products designed to enable members of the public to gain unfair competitive advantages (i.e., to cheat) in the COD Games.” The suit goes on to state that the “ongoing activities damage Activision’s games, its overall business, and the experience of the COD player community.”
According to claims made in the lawsuit, the cheating software in question allows players to “manipulate the CoD games to their personal advantage, such as by automatically aiming weapons, revealing the locations of opponents, and allowing the player to see information that is not normally available to players because it would give them an unfair advantage within the game.”
EngineOwning’s own website states that it offers “cheat software for different multiplayer games” as it believes that “everyone should have the ability to win and enjoy online matches”. As well as including cheat subscription services for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone, the site also lists cheats for a range of other games, including CoD Vanguard, Halo Infinite, Battlefield 5, Splitgate and more.
Activision’s efforts to limit cheaters within its Call of Duty titles have stepped up over the past few months. In October, the publisher announced Richocet, a kernel-level anti-cheat system for the franchise, which was then rolled out in December alongside Warzone’s move to a new map.
For more on Call of Duty, make sure to check out this article detailing how Warzone has accidentally added a skin that can turn players almost completely invisible.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
