Bungie and Ubisoft recently filed a lawsuit against the people who it claims are running Ring-1, a website that makes and sells cheats for various games like Destiny 2, PUBG, and Rainbow Six Siege. Both companies allege multiple offences including copyright infringement and are seeking potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in damages and want the site shut down.
As spotted by TorrentFreak earlier this week, the lawsuit was filed in a California district court on July 23. Bungie and Ubisoft state in the lawsuit, which can be seen here courtesy of TorrentFreak, that Ring-1 has “…caused, and is continuing to cause, massive and irreparable harm to Plaintiffs and their business interests.” As pointed out in the lawsuit, these cheats that are sold on Ring-1 can ruin the “experience” of playing games online. The suit also mentions that “…cheaters illegitimately obtain and thereby devalue the in-game rewards that non-cheaters obtain legitimately.”
Ubisoft claims in the suit that these cheats could also cause Rainbow Six Siege players to become frustrated and stop playing, which could “disrupt the entire R6S community and cause the game to wither and die.” Further, both comapines claim that Ring-1 and those who operate it are “trafficking in circumvention devices in violation of the DMCA.”
The lawsuit lists multiple people who the gaming companies claim to operate, maintain, or are directly involved with Ring-1 and its cheats business. The defendants named include Jonathan Aguedo (Overpowered), Andrew Thorpe (Krypto), Wesam Mohammed (Grizzly), and Ahmad Mohammed. The suit also notes many other individuals connected to Ring-1 who are either not named specifically or only by their online usernames. Bungie and Ubisoft plan to amend the suit when and if the companies can track down the real identities of these individuals.
The cheats sold on Ring-1 are rather expensive, with some Destiny 2 cheats like aimbots costing players €30 euros (about $35 USD ($48)) per week or twice that per month. It’s believed the cheat makers and sellers could be bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue by selling these cheats.
Also mentioned in the lawsuit is the claimed unauthorised use of various copyrighted images and trademarked logos on the Ring-1 website. (I won’t link to it here, because I don’t want to support cheaters, but I looked at the site and yes it is plastered in this stuff. I highly doubt the folks running this site had permission or licenses to use any of these images or logos.)
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As a result of all this, Bungie and Ubisoft want the website, all cheating software being sold and all Ring-1 services shut down. The companies also claim to be entitled to “monetary damages, injunctive and other equitable relief, and punitive damages.”
Or in other words: They want some cash from these cheaters.
This isn’t the first time Bungie or Ubisoft have targeted cheat sellers and makers. Back in October of last year, Bungie shut down a Destiny cheat site with a cease and desist. And in January of this year, Bungie and Riot filed a lawsuit against another website that was selling cheat software for games like Valorant and Destiny 2.
With cheat makers continuing to improve their software and with online games and cross-play becoming more and more popular, it seems likely the war between cheaters, gamers, and developers is only getting started. I foresee many more lawsuits and legal showdowns in the future.
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