Cheating and harassment are one of the biggest problems in many industries that include entertainment and competition in some way. Gaming and esports industry is no stranger to this either, and developers are constantly seeking ways to eliminate those threats that ruin their work. One of the latest big moves against cheaters came from the developer of Destiny 2, Bungie.
Bungie filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in July against a player it alleges has a long history of cheating, creating alternative accounts to evade bans, and threatening studio employees. The company says that such aggressive moves are good for both players and business alike.
According to general counsel Don McGowan, these harmful people are usually tolerated because people who has means to stop them do not focus on them. Due to this lack of focus, people are leaving the products they enjoy behind.
Bungie employees are also being harassed and threatened due to their efforts against cheaters and similar entities. People are going to extreme levels like making real-life threats towards the developers and their studio. Their Community Manager dmg04 said that Bungie cut back on its public communications with players due to such harassments and threatening.
Therefore, with all such matters piling up, legal team of Bungie is pretty much straightforward on making life a lot harder on these aggressive people. They are not holding it back when it comes to using legal means to stop them, and lately they are bringing in millions of dollars with settlements from lawsuits. One example was in June, where they agreed with Elite Boss Tech and 11020781 Canada go a $13.5M settlement. This shows how serious they are.
Their latest move in this pursuit is the $7.6M lawsuit against Nicholas “Lord Nazo” Minor due to allegedly filing fraudalent copyright strikes against videos on Bungie’s official YouTube channel. Previously, Bungie also joined forces with Ubisoft to file a lawsuit against a cheatmaker known as Ring-1.
