Bungie has won a lawsuit against Phoenix Digital, a company that owns the cheat-making website AimJunkies. The lawsuit was issued in 2021, with a jury finally reaching a verdict on Friday, May 24. Phoenix Digital and four individuals related to the company (David Schaefer, Jeffrey Conway, Jordan Green, and James May) were found guilty, and Bungie will be awarded $63,210 in damages from the company’s profits while selling Destiny 2 cheats.
While not a significant sum for the company, it is possibly the first time a jury has found that, indeed, making (and selling) cheats for a game infringes on a developer’s copyright. Previous cases were all settled before going to actual trial. That happened last year for Bungie, which sued another Destiny 2 cheat seller (LaviCheats) and received around $6 million in damages.
This time, Phoenix Digital fought back, which is unusual. They even filed a counterclaim alleging that Bungie had illegally broken into one of their PCs to obtain the information needed for their lawsuit. The jury dismissed this counterclaim.
However, in a statement to Stephen Totilo, Phoenix Digital founder David Schaefer said the cheat-making company isn’t done fighting. They will file to dismiss this verdict and appeal if needed.
As for Bungie, the studio’s lawyer released the following statement:
We are grateful for the diligence, professionalism, and care exercised by the Judge, his staff, and the Jury. We’re committed to our players and will continue to protect them against cheats, including taking this and future cases all the way to trial.
In other Bungie news, the much-awaited Destiny 2: The Final Shape expansion is set to launch next week. The studio (acquired by Sony in 2022 for $3.6 billion) is also working on Marathon, a sci-fi PvP extraction shooter due to launch next year on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X with full cross-play. In this game, players’ actions will affect the whole world, according to the studio.
