Bungie Wins $US12 Million In Destiny 2 Anti-Cheat Lawsuit

As Bungie continues on its warpath against Destiny 2 cheaters, the studio has won $US12 million in the lawsuit against Romanian cheat seller Mihai Claudiu-Florentin that began back in 2021.

Claudiu-Florentin sold cheat software at VeteranCheats, which allowed users to get an edge over other players with software that could do things like tweak their aim and let them see through walls. Naturally, Bungie argued that the software was damaging to Destiny 2‘s competitive and cooperative modes, and has won the case against the seller. The lawsuit alleges “copyright infringement, violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), breach of contract, intentional interference with contractual relations, and violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act.” (Thanks, TheGamePost).

You can read a full PDF of the suit, courtesy of TheGamePost, here, but the gist of it is that Bungie is asking for $US12,059,912.98 in total damages, with $US11,696,000 going toward violations of the DMCA, $US146,662.28 ($203,597) for violations of the Copyright Act, and $US217,250.70 accounting for the studio’s attorney expense. After subpoenaing Stripe, a payment processing service, Bungie learned that at least 5848 separate transactions took place through the service that included Destiny 2 cheating software from November 2020 to July 2022.

While Bungie might have $US12 million more dollars out of this, VeteranCheats’ website is still up and offering cheating software for games like Overwatch and Call of Duty. Though, Destiny no longer appears on the site’s home page or if you search within its community.

According to the lawsuit, Bungie has paid around $US2 million in its anti-cheating efforts between staffing and software. This also extended to a blanket ban on cheating devices in both competitive and PvE modes earlier this month.

While Destiny 2 has been wrapped up in legal issues, the shooter has also been caught up in some other controversy recently thanks to a major leak that led to the ban of a major content creator in the game’s community.