- Activation is going after the people responsible for the proliferation of cheats and hacks in its Call of Duty franchise
- The sentiment is right, but the drawback is that the company does not know who is behind EngineOwning
- EngineOwning is targeted by the Activision lawsuit as one of the biggest proliferators of cheats in Call of Duty
Activision has not stopped trying to clamp down on cheaters across the Call of Duty franchise, but the company is also choosing to go after the culprits in real life. Specifically, Activision is now targeting EngineOwning, a company that “promotes” cheats according to the lawsuit.
Throwing a Spanner in the Engine of Cheating
Over the years, Activision has filed some contentious lawsuits, but this time, the company is spot on. A lawsuit filed by Activision Publishing, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, on Tuesday reveals that the company is now targeting EngineOwning, which promotes and possibly develops cheats for some of Activision’s most grossing games.
This, Activision argues, cannot continue. The lawsuit wants EngineOwning to discontinue what is described as “unlawful conduct.” Activision is right on the money (no pun intended) as cheating has been the bane of the Call of Duty franchise. Dr Disrespect, a famed streamer and a shooter community personality, has cried foul of the franchise because of Activision’s life-long struggle to curb cheaters from proliferating.
The lawsuit has given numerous reasons as to why what EngineOwning does is illegal. As not every magistrate is familiar with gaming, the details matter:
“The Cheating Software enables 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.”
Activision Publishing
Activision though is faced with some impediments in targeting the lawsuit. The individuals behind EngineOwning have been successful in concealing their identities. Some individuals have been identified, Activision argues, but anything, including their affiliation with the company or real names, as well as full capacities, is still unknown to one of the major publishers in the industry
Blasting Cheaters with Bans to No Avail
Activision has come guns a-blazing against cheater in Call of Duty, introducing an improved version of its previous anti-cheating systems, or the Ricochet anti-cheat system. There have been numerous instances of hardware issued to offending parties.
Despite this culling, the throngs of cheaters have proven resilient to the point where Activision is interested in going after the source. Hundreds of thousands of accounts have been banned in the meantime, the company specified in the lawsuit.
EngineOwning, though, seems to have remained unimpressed with those developments. Meanwhile, the company cheekily reminds us that its cheating systems are being updated on a frequent basis.
Activision has been battling on other fronts as well, including the scandals that involve its QA testers at Raven and the lawsuit lodged against Blizzard for years of a predatory and discriminatory culture in which female employees had been targeted by male higher-ups the company’s pecking order.
