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Activision’s Call of Duty Cheat Lawsuit: What the $14.5 Million Figure Means

Activision’s 2024 motion sought $14,465,600 in damages and $292,912 in costs and fees in its EngineOwning case, but the final award is not verified here.
From TheFinanceBase Team2 min to read
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Activision’s April 2024 filing asked a federal court for $14,465,600 in damages and a separate $292,912 in costs and fees in its case against EngineOwning UG and other defendants. Those were amounts Activision requested—not a verified final award. The proceeding followed the defendants’ defaults, rather than a contested jury trial.

What did Activision ask the court to award?

In an April 12, 2024 motion for default judgment, Activision Publishing, Inc. requested $14,465,600 in monetary damages and $292,912 in costs and fees. The motion said its damages request relied on minimum statutory damages for alleged violations of 17 U.S.C. §1201 and served as a conservative approximation of profits. Both figures are requests in Activision’s filing; the final default-judgment order was not verified here, so they should not be described as amounts the court ultimately awarded. Activision’s motion for default judgment.

The requested damages and requested costs and fees are separate sums. The $14.5 million headline figure refers to the damages request, not a combined total inclusive of the additional costs and fees.

Who was sued, and what was the case about?

The case is Activision Publishing, Inc. v. EngineOwning UG et al., No. 2:22-cv-00051, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Activision’s motion identifies January 4, 2022, as the complaint filing date and September 16, 2022, as the date it filed an amended complaint. The case targeted EngineOwning and associated defendants over software alleged to facilitate cheating in Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard games. Activision’s motion; a docket-document reproduction listing software and games in the injunction context.

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Was this a trial verdict?

No. Activision’s April 2024 motion said the named defendants had been served, defaults had been entered, and the defendants had not defended the case. It therefore sought a default judgment. That is procedurally different from a jury weighing both sides’ evidence after a contested trial. A default does not turn the amount requested in a motion into a confirmed award: the court’s order is needed to establish what relief was actually granted.

How does the separate judgment against Manuel Santiago fit in?

A separate consent judgment in the same case concerns defendant Manuel T. Santiago. It includes a permanent injunction addressing cheating and spoofing software, including specified restrictions on development, promotion, sale, distribution, and related assistance. It also requires reasonable action to disable certain social accounts and remove distribution information. This consent judgment is distinct from the later default-judgment proceeding against the other defendants; its terms should not be treated as the final ruling on Activision’s motion. Consent judgment against Manuel T. Santiago.

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The docket-document reproduction lists EngineOwning software associated with multiple Call of Duty titles and other Activision Blizzard games in the injunction context. That listing does not establish that every title received identical treatment under Santiago’s specific consent judgment. Docket-document reproduction.

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What remains uncertain about the outcome?

The final default-judgment order is necessary to confirm the amount awarded, how the court handled costs and fees, whether it granted domain-transfer relief, and the precise injunction terms. The available filings summarized here do not establish later appeals, collection or enforcement status, whether the service continued operating, or post-judgment compliance. Until the final order and any later docket activity are checked, the accurate description is that Activision requested the stated sums in its April 2024 motion.

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