This marks Bungie's third legal victory over Destiny 2 cheat-makers (and users) since it began openly cracking down on cheats in the summer of 2022.
Bungie has recently won a lawsuit against Romanian cheat-seller Mihai Claudiu-Florentin. First spotted by TheGamePost, the Destiny 2 developer has been awarded $12 million to be paid by Claudiu-Florentin, who reportedly sold VeteranCheats, one of the most popular cheat programs for the online shooter.
VeteranCheats was one of three cheat-makers that Bungie originally sued back in 2021. The site, along with Elite Boss Tech and Lavicheats, had been accused of copyright infringement on account of their creation, sales, and distributions of cheats across the Destiny 2 community.
Per court documents relating to the case, Claudiu-Florentin was making a reported $146.6 thousand in revenue from selling the cheats he made on his website. That revenue is part of the $12 million requested by Bungie, along with nearly $11.7 million in DMCA violations and $217.2 thousand in legal fees.
The Seattle-based developer alleged his hacks did sizable harm to the Destiny 2 community. It allegedly spent “a minimum of $2,000,000 on game security staffing and software” to combat cheating software sold by VetertanHacks and other distributors.
The court also put a permanent injunction on Claudiu-Florentin, making it so that he can't "engage in future or further conduct that forms the basis of its Copyright Act and DMCA claims in this action."
Since that initial 2021 suit, Bungie has made it quite clear it'll go after those who disrupt the Destiny 2 player base in a negative way. In June 2022, it won its lawsuit against Elite Boss Tech, and the website was ordered to pay $12.5 million to the developer.
Currently, it has an in-progress lawsuit for Lavicheats owner Kunal Bansal. As of February 2023, Bungie requested a payment of $6.7 million from Kunal. Shortly after that lawsuit, Lavicheats elected to stop selling Destiny 2 hacks.
That same month, it won a $4.4 million lawsuit against cheat-maker AimJunkies, under similar claims of copyright infringement.
And finally, Bungie sued player Luca "inkcell" Leone in July 2022. Leone was found to have used in-game cheats and hacks in Destiny 2 PvP matches while streaming, and had also been allegedly harassing some Bungie employees.
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