Judge orders 2 Call of Duty cheat-makers to pay millions of dollars in damages to Activision

Two of the makers of Call of Duty cheat-makers EngineOwning have been ordered to pay up hefty damages fees to Activision for various cheats made for multiple Activision-Blizzard games, including Warzone 2, first picked up in a report by Axios.

In a judgment rendered on Feb. 13, 2023, two defendants identified as Manuel Santiago and Ignacio Gayduchenko were ordered to pay Activision $1 million and $2 million, respectively.

The judgment says that the two are now banned from creating cheats made and to be sold to “the public to exploit, cheat manipulate, gain unfair advantages,” and “circumvent technological measures” within a variety of games, including several CoD titles, such as CoD: Vanguard, Warzone Caldera, MW2, Warzone 2, and others.

It’s unclear how much EngineOwning profited off of cheats that were made, but they were available to purchase on a website for the past few years. Cheats for sale included wallhacks, aimbots, and more. The suit by Activision began last January.

As recently as the beginning of this month, EngineOwning was advertising a cheat that would crash entire game lobbies in Warzone 2 with just the click of a button.

Warzone especially has had a tenuous history with cheaters, largely due to the fact that it’s a free-to-play game. But Activision has made tremendous strides with its RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system in curbing the hacking epidemic, although never with 100 percent success.

Hackers continue to be a problem in CoD, especially in Modern Warfare 2’s new ranked play mode.