Bungie wins $4.3M lawsuit against Destiny 2 cheat maker

Destiny 2 creator Bungie has been awarded $4.3 million arising from the 2021 lawsuit it filed against against the acknowledged cheat-maker AimJunkies. The case was resolved in arbitration, according to court documents filed last week (and first reported by TorrentFreak). The matter went to arbitration after lots of back and forth between the two parties — including a counterclaim that Bungie hacked one of AimJunkies’ developers.

Since 2021, Bungie has gone after cheat makers in court, alleging copyright infringement of their products, and AimJunkies is one of the hack creators the company has targeted. AimJunkies, owned by Phoenix Digital Group, makes aimbots, wall hacks, and other cheats for Destiny 2 and several other popular games. AimJunkies’ online marketplace is still up, but its Destiny 2 cheats are no longer on the menu, apparently due to an injunction from the arbitration filing.

The case arbitrator found that AimJunkies violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by using tools to reverse engineer Destiny 2 in order to make their cheats. Bungie also banned an AimJunkies developer “several times,” according to the documents, who then circumvented protections to regain access to the game. Bungie was awarded $2,500 for 102 violations in all, costing AimJunkies $255,000. The company was also fined $3.4 million for selling its Destiny 2 cheats; Bungie said AimJunkies sold more than 1,000 cheats, each of which the company was fined for.

Bungie also convinced the arbitrator of other claims against AimJunkies, like breach of contract — specifically the terms and conditions signed to play Destiny 2 — as well as interfering with Bungie’s user contracts with its players; violating the Consumer Protection Act; and destroying evidence. The total judgment amounts to more than $3.6 million in damages, plus legal costs, bringing the winnings up to $4.3 million.

“We’re pleased to have been awarded what we believe to be the first instance of statutory damages for a DMCA violation,” Bungie general counsel Don McGowan said in a statement issued to Polygon. “We’ve made our position against cheaters and illegal cheat makers abundantly clear in publicly-accessible court filings and our in-game actions. We will continue to take action against bad actors who damage the player experience for the rest of the community.”

AimJunkies has not responded to Polygon’s request for comment.

It’s another big win in Bungie’s battle against cheat makers, who continue to do a lot of business around the world. In April 2021, Bungie and Valorant creator Riot Games teamed up to sue GatorCheats, another hack creator. The case was settled, with GatorCheats agreeing to pay $2 million in damages.