Many individuals residing in Germany are accused of being behind the important site engineowning, which distributes very well known software.
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Activision, one of the largest video game publishers in the world, filed complaint , Tuesday, January 4, against Engineowning, an important site dedicated to cheating in multiplayer games. Like many other sites, Engineowning sells to its customers software that can get benefits in online shooting games, such as automatically aiming for its opponents or see through the walls, for example. Software is sold in subscription, prices that range from 5 euros for three days to 45 euros for six months, according to the games.
On its site, Engineowning offers tools to cheat up to several popular activism multiplayer games, such as the Saga Call of Duty (Warzone, Recent Vanguard, but also Modern Warfare). The site “lends itself to development, selling, distribution and marketing of a range of cheating and hacking tools for popular online games, with leading Call of Duty games,” explains Activision in its complaint, filed in the United States before a Californian court.
Several German nationals targeted
The judicial document covers two German business entities, CMM Holdings SA and Engineowning Software UG, accused of being directly related to the site selling cheating software. Many individuals are also targeted by the complaint, including Valentin Rick, a German citizen appointed by Activision as the main director of Engineowning and the boss of the two companies mentioned above. “Activision contacted Rick in 2018 and 2020 about his involvement in Engineowning and his site, and in response he claimed to have sold the site to an unidentified buyer. Rick has never provided evidence of such Sale “, highlights the American publisher in his complaint.
Several other people are named, most residing in Germany, and accused of participating or having been involved in the operation of Engineowning or software development. Other Internet users have been identified in the document only by their pseudonym. Cheating software has been experiencing a cat and the mouse for a long time between competitive play publishers, which install more and more sophisticated detectors, and developers seeking to deceive the vigilance of studios in creating discreet tools. The best known, like the Wall Hacks (to see through the walls) and the aimbots (to automatically aim the opponent’s head for example) are the obsession of the studios, because they spoil the experience of the players do not touching not and can scare users if they become too widespread.
This is not the first time that developers and resellers of cheating software are targeted by justice. In April, the Chinese authorities, in partnership with the Giant New Technology Tencent, led an operation against a vast network of this type operating from China and Accused of generating more than $ 70 million in revenue .