A US federal court awards Activision $14.46M+ in its 2022 civil lawsuit accusing EngineOwning of violating the DMCA by selling Call of Duty cheating software
Owned. — A high-profile video game cheat maker has been ordered to pay Activision over $14 million in damages and hand over its domain name.
IGNWesley Yin-Poole
Context & Ripple Effects
The ruling arrives days after a jury found AimJunkies owner Phoenix Digital liable over Destiny 2 cheats, giving publishers another closely timed enforcement outcome against commercial cheat sellers. the recent AimJunkies liability verdict makes this more than an isolated dispute.
For Activision, the order combines monetary relief with transfer of EngineOwning's domain, extending the remedy beyond a finding of liability to the seller's customer-facing distribution channel.
First-order effects
EngineOwning must pay Activision more than $14.46 million and surrender its domain, removing the specific web address used to market the accused Call of Duty cheating software.
Activision gains a court-backed DMCA enforcement result that it can use to protect the integrity of its Call of Duty service and its rules against unauthorized tools.
Second-order effects
Commercial cheat vendors face a clearer litigation risk: the closely preceding Bungie-related cheat verdict and this damages award show publishers pursuing both liability and practical disruption of distribution.
Domain control becomes a more consequential remedy in anti-cheat disputes, because taking over a seller's public storefront can disrupt customer acquisition alongside financial damages.
Third-order effects
If publishers continue to win comparable cases, anti-cheat enforcement may increasingly combine technical defenses with IP litigation aimed at the commercial infrastructure around cheats.
The pattern points toward platform governance becoming part of competitive game operations: access to a large multiplayer ecosystem increasingly depends on complying with publisher rules, though the durability of that shift will depend on future rulings and enforcement.
The trend: Major multiplayer publishers are treating commercial cheating ecosystems as an enforcement target spanning software, storefronts, and distribution infrastructure.
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BREAKING: Activision has been granted default judgement in its court case against cheat provider EngineOwning. Judge ruled EngineOwning owes Activision $14.45M in damages and $292,900 in legal fees. Judge ruled EngineOwning website domain must be transferred to Activision. [image…
EngineOwning, the cheat provider who was ordered to hand over their website domain + $14 million to Activision, has released a statement. “This bogus claim, that would not have been approved by any clearheaded judge with even basic democratic values in a proper jurisdiction” 🤡 [i…
EngineOwning, the cheat provider that has been ordered to pay Activision $14.5M in damages, shared a statement claiming that the site currently has “new owners” not listed in the lawsuit. They're also making a bunch of backup URLs after a judge ordered their main URL must be [ima…
Also, nowhere in the lawsuit did Activision state they would get access to EngineOwning's user data, but EngineOwning is attempting to defend themselves on this saying user data is “safe”