Bungie is pushing back against cheat providers. The studio has reportedly filed a lawsuit against another cheat developer for a huge sum. LaviCheats, a company behind cheating technologies for games like Elden Ring, Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Rainbow Six Siege has been sued by Bungie.
The Destiny 2 developer is seeking a total of $6.7 million from LaviCheats. The sum is equivalent to $2000 for each of the 2,790 cheat program downloads made by clients from the LaviCheats website for Destiny 2.
A document provided by Destiny Bulletin states that the amount that Bungie is seeking would have been larger, as it’s likely the cheat maker understated the number of downloads. Considering most lawsuits overshoot the damages sought, so that the inevitable negotiations bring it down to what they actually want, this is a bit of an odd tactic.
NEW: Another #Destiny2 cheat seller, LaviCheats, has been hit with a $6.7 million lawsuit from Bungie.
Bungie wants at least "$2,000 for each of the 2,790 cheat software" downloaded from seller's websites. pic.twitter.com/1Kxe64eV9x
— Destiny Bulletin (@DestinyBulletn) February 20, 2023
The document also reveals that Bungie is seeking a “significant damage award,” as it is likely that LaviCheats would not stop its unlawful actions without the lawsuit. LaviCheats responded to the lawsuit by posting “Bungie lawyers you suck my nuts!” on the company’s forum.
It is not the first time that Bungie has taken a cheat developer to court. Another cheat creator named Elite Boss Tech was sued by the studio. According to the lawsuit, the cheat program made by Elite Boss Tech for Destiny 2 was downloaded 6,765 times. The amount sought by Bungie was $13.5 million, or equivalent to $2000 per download.
Bungie also teamed up with Riot Games in 2020 to take down another cheat program maker. The two studios filed a lawsuit against GatorCheats for copyright infringement and violations of the anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA code. The case was reportedly settled with an injunction but sent a clear message that Bungie will not tolerate any cheat developer for Destiny 2.
It will be a while before this new lawsuit gets resolved. Litigation for such lawsuits typically lasts several years, depending on several factors – in this case, LaviCheats’ initial reaction doesn’t indicate they’ll be cooperative.
Recent judgments for lawsuits against creators of cheat software have been favorable to game developers. A cheat maker was recently ordered to pay Activision $3 million in damages for creating a cheat program for Call of Duty titles.
Bungie also recently won judgment against cheat maker AimJunkies. The company was ordered by the court to pay the Destiny 2 developer $4.3 million in damages. The decision states that AimJunkies violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act when it reverse-engineered the game’s code to create a cheat software.
Hopefully, this slew of lawsuits discourages companies and individuals from creating cheat software. The presence of such programs ruins the gameplay experience for everyone involved, and has caused long-lasting controversies in some of the biggest multiplayer titles.
In other news, Bungie is gearing up for the release of Lightfall, the penultimate expansion for the Destiny 2 saga. The new expansion will be arriving on February 28, 2022. Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
