Activision Sues Maker Of Call Of Duty: Warzone Cheat That Has Caused "Millions" In Damages

Note: Activision Blizzard is still under investigation by the state of California for serious harassment charges. CEO Bobby Kotick is alleged to have known about such actions within his company – and performed some himself – and shielded the perpetrators from consequences.

Activision is doing some suing of its own, going after the maker of popular cheat programs for Call of Duty: Warzone. The suit, first spotted by CharlieIntel, targets German cheat maker EngineOwning and seeks $2,500 for each violation of the law, which "has caused damage to Activision and has unjustly enriched Defendants," causing "millions of dollars" in damages.

Activision also said that it knows EngineOwning is working on a cheat program for Blizzard's Overwatch, and is seeking to prevent its completion through court action.

EngineOwning offers its cheats via a subscription, ranging from $5 for three days to $45 for 90 days. It includes aim bots, trigger bots, and wall hacks, "designed to avoid detection by anti-cheat software, as well as the ability to hide cheats from video recording software," Activision alleges. In an act of supreme hubris, some cheaters are even flaunting their status in-game, with names like "YesImHacking."

While all this is going on, employees at Warzone developer Raven Software are starting their third week on strike, protesting the layoffs of several QA workers in early December. On Monday, the strikers wrote a letter that was picked up by the A Better ABK account on Twitter. It re-iterated demands for the 12 laid-off workers, and all QA employees, to be given full-time positions, relocation packages for those who moved to Wisconsin, and an outline of leadership's goals for the QA department.

Today is the third week in which employees across the company are striking in solidarity with Raven QA in response to surprise layoffs. Having had no response from our leadership, Raven QA sent the following letter earlier today. #WeAreRaven pic.twitter.com/e9AjbpuiJN

— ABetterABK 💙 ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) January 4, 2022

UPDATE, Jan. 6: In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, Activision Blizzard said that "Raven leadership has engaged in dialogue with its staff to hear concerns and explain the company's overall investment in development resources" and re-iterated several measures it announced previously, such as "converting nearly 500 temporary workers to full-time employees across our studios" and, in regard to the 12 workers who were let go, that it "provided an extended notice period, included payment for the two-week holiday break, and will be working directly with those that need relocation assistance."