Bungie hit a bit of trouble in its legal campaign against Destiny 2 cheaters in May when a Seattle judge dismissed Bungie’s copyright infringement lawsuit against AimJunkies. Bungie had claimed that cheats were an infringement on its copyright. AimJunkies, however, defends its software as a unique creation. The judge agreed with AimJunkies.
This was not the end of the matter. Bungie retained other elements of the lawsuit, including the allegations of trademark infringements and “false design of origin.” Bungie was allowed time to refute the copyright violation portion of its case. A few weeks later, it claimed that AimJunkies had “reverse-engineered” and copied Destiny 2’s software code to create its cheat software.
Bungie claimed that AimJunkies copied the Destiny 2 software code, which corresponds with the data structures for a player position [in] Destiny 2 and reverses engineered Destiny 2’s rendering function to create the cheat software’s ESP.
Although the revised complaint is more detailed, AimJunkies doesn’t seem to be backing down. A new Torrentfreak Report indicates that the cheat maker is stepping up legal action to defend its software and its right to sell it. According to the site, AimJunkies has issued subpoenas for Valve, PayPal and Google to prove that its cheats didn’t cause any damage to Bungie. This is contrary to what the studio claims.
AimJunkies posted a press release on the site defending its Destiny 2 overlay. They said it is no different from the one on Steam.
“We believed that OUR software product did exactly what Steam and countless other overlays do. AimJunkies stated that the Steam overlay and other similar products are our belief not to be derivative works. Bungie claims we did grievous damage to their game when in reality, their most successful months in terms of player numbers and sales occurred during the period AimJunkies sold their software products. We believe that they are lying, and we will prove it.
AimJunkies suggested that it would pursue legal action against an employee or contractor that allegedly purchased AimJunkies cheat code and then handed it to an “unnamed” company to be decompiled. This is a violation of AimJunkies’ terms of service. Bungie was also accused of making cheating illegal “because they can’t govern their own players.”
The press release states, “They look to the courts for what they ‘Bungies’ are unable to do on their own with the vast resources of technology at their disposal,” it states. They would prefer to die by a thousand cuts rather than admit that this is not the solution.
“We, [AimJunkies parent] Phoenix Digital Group, have offered to collaborate with Bungie to find multiple solutions to their problem.” We believe that our features should be implemented in their game for distribution. However, their bully mentality and pride prevent them from thinking outside the box.
It is a strange and confusing statement. It is unclear what Bungie would gain by distributing Destiny 2 with built-in cheats. Or why Bungie would need to partner to do so.
Bungie, or any other game company, usually settles legal actions against cheat makers quickly. Companies such as PerfectAim and Elite Boss Tech (and the people behind them) have fled the courtroom in the face of litigation. They want to avoid being heavily hammered and sued by the courts. AimJunkies is holding firm for the time being. It will be fascinating to see what happens next.
Bungie did not respond to my request for comment. I reached out to AimJunkies and will update this post if I get a response.
