EngineOwning must pay Activision $15 million and give up its domain

Last year, Activision Blizzard enjoyed success in court, with EngineOwning – arguably the most prolific purveyor of cheating in gaming – ordered to pay a whopping $3 million in damages. This case involved both Overwatch and Call of Duty, but it wasn’t the end of the debacle as AB refused to back down.

Today, a judge ruled that EngineOwning owes Activision Blizzard approximately $15 million in damages and legal fees, based on the platform’s constant (successful) attempts to circumvent AB’s anti-cheat systems. Not only that, but the court also ruled that the EngineOwning domain must be handed over to Activision Blizzard.

Crime does not pay

During this long fight between EngineOwning and Activision Blizzard, thousands of players have been named and revealed to have used EngineOwning’s cheat software. This included a large number of content creators who were effectively tainted by the lawsuit – and by their malicious activities.

It was claimed in the final lawsuit documentation that in the United States, EngineOwning’s software had been downloaded 72,328 times. The court therefore deemed it “reasonable” for AB to request such a high sum of damages. It was later revealed that the attorney’s fees alone totaled $292,912.

For years, EngineOwning has offered cheat solutions for Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Battlefield, and Titanfall, among other games. The company also proposed a hardware ID spoofer, which bypasses one of the essential functions of anti-cheat software, especially high-end solutions that can enact “hardware bans” against cheaters.

Ultimately, this won’t do much to slow down these malicious operators, as the market for cheating in video games is like a many-headed hydra – but it’s certainly a blow.

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