Activision was awarded $14,465,600 in statutory damages in its lawsuit over EngineOwning’s Call of Duty cheating software, plus approximately $292,912 in attorneys’ fees. The May 2024 ruling was a default judgment, not a jury verdict after a contested trial. The court also ordered EngineOwning UG to transfer the EngineOwning.to domain to Activision.
How much did Activision win in the Call of Duty cheating lawsuit?
The damages award was $14,465,600, often rounded to $14.5 million. Attorneys’ fees of approximately $292,912 were awarded separately, according to Bloomberg Law’s report on the ruling: Bloomberg Law.
The judgment was entered on May 28, 2024, by U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald. Because the defendants defaulted, the outcome should not be described as a jury finding or a verdict reached after a contested trial. Bloomberg Law reported the ruling on May 29, 2024: its account of the judgment.
How Activision calculated the damages
Activision’s April 12, 2024 court filing said it had disabled 150,825 accounts for cheating and estimated that 47.9% were associated with U.S. users. That produced an estimate of 72,328 U.S. users or downloads. Activision multiplied that estimate by $200, the minimum statutory-damages amount it invoked under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), to arrive at $14,465,600. The calculation is described in Activision’s filing.
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Those figures were Activision’s estimates and presentation to the court. They do not establish that a court audited a precise sales ledger or independently verified that 72,328 people paid for downloads. The filing characterized its estimate as conservative; the $200 figure was the statutory-damages basis Activision used in its calculation.
Why did Activision sue EngineOwning?
Activision accused EngineOwning-affiliated defendants of marketing and selling software intended to let players cheat in Call of Duty. Its filing said the software could circumvent anti-cheat protections and spoof hardware identifiers, which can make it harder to identify or block a player using cheats. Activision alleged that the conduct violated federal and California law; those descriptions are the company’s claims in the case, not findings from a contested trial. The allegations are set out in the April 2024 filing.
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In describing its anti-cheat system, Activision’s filing characterized RICOCHET as designed to detect cheats and prevent cheaters from playing. That is Activision’s description of the system, not an independent measurement of its effectiveness.
What else did the court order?
- Domain transfer: Bloomberg Law reported that EngineOwning UG was ordered to transfer the EngineOwning.to domain to Activision.
- Attorneys’ fees: Approximately $292,912 was awarded separately from the statutory damages.
- Earlier injunction: A separate consent judgment in the litigation had permanently barred specified cheating-software activities. It was an earlier order and should not be conflated with the May 2024 default judgment or assumed to apply to every defendant on identical terms. See Bloomberg Law’s report and the case filings.
Why the ruling was a default judgment
Activision’s filing says many defendants had appeared through counsel and that the court denied their motion to dismiss in April 2023. The defendants later stopped participating, and the case proceeded to default judgment. A default judgment resolves the case after a party fails to respond or participate as required; it is procedurally different from a trial at which both sides contest the evidence and a jury returns a verdict. The procedural history is described in Activision’s filing.
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