Romanian national Mihai Claudiu-Florentin lost a Destiny 2 sales cheating lawsuit against Bungie and now owes the developer $12 million in damages. Created by Claudiu-Florentin, the software allows players to cheat in various ways, such as seeing through walls or aiming more accurately in Destiny 2.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2021. Claudiu-Florentin developed and sold software called VeteranCheats, which enabled players to cheat in Destiny 2 and various other video games, including Valorant, Apex Legends, and Overwatch. Through the subpoena, Bungie identified 5,848 downloads of VeteranCheats for Destiny 2 or cheat products that included Destiny 2 options. In February 2023, Bungie seeks $12,059,912.98 in damages. This amount has been broken down into $11,696,000 in statutory damages, an aggregate of $2,000 for each of the 5,848 downloads resulting from violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), actual damages of $146,662.28 for copyright infringement, and attorneys’ fees $217,250.70 in fees and costs.
The court awarded Bungie full damages and signed a permanent injunction against Claudiu-Florentin, meaning he can no longer do anything that might violate Bungie’s or the DMCA’s copyrights. Interestingly, the VeteranCheats website is still up and running, offering cheats for a ton of popular games. However, Destiny 2 can no longer be found in those games. During the lawsuit, it was revealed that Bungie spent at least $2,000,000 on security staffing and software to combat VeteranCheats and other cheat software.
Bungie has been very aggressive in going after cheaters and sellers over the past few years. Last June, Bungie reached an agreement with another cheat creator, Elite Boss Tech, to pay $13.53 million in statutory damages. According to reports related to the case, the cheating software was downloaded about 6,765 times. Bungie also teamed up with Riot Games, and last year Ubisoft, to defeat cheat creators GatorCheats and Ring-1, which made software for Destiny 2, Valorant, and Rainbow Six: Siege. Bungie was also hit with a fraudulent copyright strike on its YouTube channel, for which it sued, winning $150,000 in statutory damages.
Players looking to go the legal route will now have an easier time enjoying Destiny 2 and games like it, as Bungie aggressively cracks down on cheat creators and sellers. However, there’s likely more work to be done to hunt down similar cheaters that detract from the enjoyment of games that don’t.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.