Bungie wins a little walkin' around money in first of its kind jury trial against Destiny 2 cheat maker, but the victory will likely make it even easier for game companies to keep taking cheaters to court

Gaming IndustryDestiny 2Bungie wins a little walkin' around money in first of its kind jury trial against Destiny 2 cheat maker, but the victory will likely make it even easier for game companies to keep taking cheaters to courtWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Bungie)

Destiny 2: Forsaken

Devs suing cheat makers isn’t new: Bungie has led the charge on lawsuits against these services⁠, which have become professionalized in recent years, often selling cheats for specific games on a subscription basis. In addition to playing the whack-a-mole game of developing new,more invasive forms of anticheatsoftware, the legal strategy has paid dividends for Bungie and other developers like Riot Games.

Typically, cheat manufacturers have immediately folded in the face of legal pressure like this, but as reported in Totilo’s newsletter,Game File, AimJunkies/Phoenix Digital counter-sued Bungie, alleging that the developer illegally accessed one of the cheat maker’s computers. Notably, cheating in a videogame is not illegal: the legal basis for suing cheat makers rests on the argument that reverse engineering a game to produce cheats violates a developer’s copyright.

While the $63,210 in damages is “change between the couch cushions''-level⁠—for Bungie at least, I would love to receive $63,210 in damages⁠—a jury trial in Bungie’s favor ties a nice bow on the studio’s legal campaign against cheat makers. While AimJunkies/Phoenix Digital has said they will move to dismiss the verdict or, as a last resort, appeal the decision, the track record of legal battles between devs and cheat makers doesn’t leave me bullish on their chances.

And I’m not exactly shedding a tear for for-profit cheat makers—it’s an inherently obnoxious, even parasitic business model⁠—but developers' reliance on copyright law as their main weapon against cheaters gives me the ick.

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