Activision claims that some “high-profile” Call of Duty streamers in the U.S. do in fact, buy and use cheats.
The statement was made in Activision’s latest court filing in its ongoing lawsuit against EngineOwning, one of the most prominent cheat providers in gaming.
Drop a 👻 if you’re hyped for spooky season pic.twitter.com/Kck7xj6qWT
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) October 1, 2022
“EngineOwning (“EO” or the “Enterprise”) is a commercial enterprise consisting of a German business entity and more than a dozen individuals (collectively, “Defendants”),” Activision’s Sept. 16 court document reads. “Defendants collectively and jointly are engaged in the development, sale, distribution, marketing and exploitation of a portfolio of malicious cheats and hacks for popular online multiplayer games, most prominently the COD Games.
“Defendants conduct extensive and ongoing business with users in the State of California and the United States. Among the customers of the Cheating Software are high-profile streamers of the COD Games who reside in the United States.”
As demonstrated by Activision here, it does appear that popular Call of Duty streamers did take a bit of a stray shot here as the company didn’t necessarily name any names, but seemingly confirmed that not all of the game’s best are always playing by the rules either.
Of course, in this context, Activision is simply trying to do whatever it can to take the website down.
“The only purpose of the Cheating Software is to harm a video game developed and published by Activision in the State of California,” Activision’s statement reads elsewhere. “Thus, the Cheating Software was developed and designed to target Activision and its products, to devalue the massive investment Activision has made in the COD Games, and to degrade the work of developers, programmers, artists, game designers, software engineers, online security experts, and others who worked on the COD Games.”
Per Activision, EngineOwning has sold aimbot and wall hack cheats for numerous Call of Duty titles over the years, including Warzone and Modern Warfare (2019).
On Sept. 13, Activision announced its new, unified Code of Conduct for the Call of Duty franchise, an initiative that all players were presented with and asked to acknowledge in-game when they first booted up the Modern Warfare II Open Beta.
One of its three core values in hopes of promoting a positive gaming experience for all players is “Compete With Integrity.”
“Cheating and griefing or other threats to fair play will not be tolerated,” the Code of Conduct reads. “You are responsible for how your account is used. The use of cheats, including third-party software, is unacceptable. Exploiting bugs or engaging in any activity that grants an unfair advantage is considered cheating.”
As part of the ongoing scrubbing of its global player database to remove toxic users, Activision also recently revealed that 500,000+ accounts have been banned to date.
Complete with upgrades and improvements, Activision’s RICOCHET Anti-Cheat — including its PC kernel-level driver — is scheduled to go live on day one for both Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0.
