Bungie and Ubisoft have filed a new lawsuit in the United States District Court Northern District of California against Ring-1, a company that offers cheat subscriptions for Destiny 2 and Rainbow Six Siege. In addition to these games, Ring-1 apparently offers similar packages for a number of other titles, including PUBG, Escape from Tarkov, and Dead by Daylight. For a monthly fee, subscribers are able to acquire a number of different cheats for a specific game, allowing them significant advantages. The cheats include aimbots, infinite ammo, and more. Making things even more frustrating, these packages also come with hardware ID spoofers, allowing them to circumvent potential bans.
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“Defendants’ sale and distribution of the Cheating Software therefore has caused Plaintiffs to suffer irreparable damage to their goodwill and reputation and to lose substantial revenue,” the lawsuit reads. The lawsuit does not specify how much Bungie and Ubisoft are suing for. Instead, an amount will be decided on at trial.
It remains to be seen whether or not the lawsuit will prove successful, but Ubisoft and Bungie are not the first publishers to go after cheat manufacturers in court. Earlier this year, hacking group Global++ settled a lawsuit for $5 million with Pokemon Go developer Niantic. Niantic alleged that Global++ was using the company’s trademarked code, and the hacking group agreed to no longer sell trademarked material as part of the settlement. Bungie and Ubisoft’s lawsuit similarly accuses Ring-1 of trademark infringement, as the group’s website uses key art from Destiny 2 and Rainbow Six Siege in order to sell cheat packages.
As online gaming continues to attract bigger audiences, publishers are forced to put much greater time and investment into dealing with those who cheat. Some anti-cheat measures have proven more successful than others; notably, Activision has had significant struggles banning cheaters from its Call of Duty games. Cheaters make the overall experience less enjoyable for everyone, and can even cause legitimate players to stop playing. It would be impossible for any publisher to completely eradicate cheating, but hopefully lawsuits like this will help curb cheating on a wider scale.
Have cheaters hurt your experience gaming online? Do you hope the lawsuit against Ring-1 is successful? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
[H/T: PC Gamer]
