Activision is suing a massive Call of Duty cheat maker

Call of Duty Warzone
(Image credit: Activision)

Call of Duty publisher Activision is suing a major provider of cheats for its FPS series.

Yesterday on January 4, Activision filed a lawsuit against EngineOwning, a gigantic distributor of cheats for Call of Duty: Warzone. As recapped in the tweet below from CharlieIntel, Activision is seeking to put a stop to "unlawful conduct" in their games, through preventing the sale of "malicious software products designed to enable members of the public to gain unfair competitive advantages in the COD games."

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However, the lawsuit isn't ending at damages through Call of Duty games. Activision is alleging through the lawsuit that EngineOwning is attempting to develop cheats for use in Overwatch, another Activision-published game, and is therefore asking through the lawsuit that cheats in additional games are eliminated.

This isn't the first time Activision has taken steps against a cheat manufacturer for Call of Duty games. Last year in July, it was reported that a cheat utilizing machine learning was being developed for use in Call of Duty: Warzone. At Activision's request, however, the cheat makers ceased development immediately, and the entire situation never escalated further.

Later on in the year, Warzone officially launched its Ricochet anti-cheat initiative, aiming to catch and eliminate all cheaters throughout the battle royale game. The Ricochet system officially launched last month, and for a complete walkthrough of what exactly the new system does, as well as how successful it's been so far, head over to our Warzone Ricochet anti cheat system explained guide for more.

For details on the lawsuits currently facing Activision themselves though, you can read up on our Activision Blizzard lawsuit explained guide.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.