Destiny 2 cheat seller ordered to pay $12 million to Bungie

Destiny 2: Lightfall
(Image credit: Youtube)

What you need to know

  • Bungie has won a $12 million lawsuit again a Romanian cheat vendor for Destiny 2.
  • The vendor sold VeteranCheats, that gave players unfair advantages in the game.
  • The court has ordered the seller to pay damages and halt the sale of the cheats immediately. 

Bungie, the developer of Destiny 2 and developers of the early Halo game, have been triumphant against a Romanian cheat-seller to the tune of $12 million dollars (via GamePost). Mihai Claudiu-Florentin who sold a popular cheat for Destiny 2 known as VeteranCheats, was originally taken to court by Bungie in 2021 with a request for 12 million in damages owing to his software giving players an unfair advantage in the game.

Court papers state that VeteranCheats harmed Destiny 2's revenue and reputation, and infringed on its intellectual property rights. Bungie claimed that using VeteranCheats ruined the fun of honest players with its unfair hacks, and caused considerable harm to the developer's reputation. The cheats included aimbot, the ability to see through walls, and teleportation amongst other crazy advantages. In fact, it caused a direct increase in costs to Bungie's game security, as they argued in the case they had spent at least $200,000 in staff and software costs to combat the harm from the cheaters.

Destiny 2

(Image credit: Bungie)

These cheats came at a high price too, $2000 dollars from each player was paid to Claudiu-Florentin for the privilege of using VeteranCheats, and the court heard it was downloaded 5,848 times before Bungie stepped in with the copyright infringement suit. That's a hell of a lot of money to 'get good'.

Claudiu-Florentin has now been ordered to pay $12 million in damages as a result of the court proceedings. This marks another victory for Bungie's legal team as they had a similar win last year against Elite Boss Tech for $13.5 million. In a comparable case, Bungie was successful in their lawsuit against Elite Boss Tech in which they accused the creators of selling cheat software that hurt the player base.

While this is a big win for Bungie, their lawyers can't rest for long. There is currently another case in progress against Luka Leone, a player and Twitch streamer who's accused of cheating and streaming his exploits live on the platform. Luka Leone is reported to have sent threatening messages to Bungie staff as well as using 13 different accounts to avoid bans in the game. Luka Leone is being sued by Bungie for $150,000 in damages and a restraining order to stop him from contacting any Bungie employees.

Just git gud, scrub.

Bungie has made it clear they take cheating in their games seriously, so that should be enough of a deterrent for the players to just hone their skills legitimately. In addition to the neverending lawsuits, they've recently announced a crackdown on Cronus and XIM cheating in-game for both PvP and PvE content.

If you need some help in that department we have a bunch of great guides to help you level up your Destiny 2 expertise.

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Destiny 2: Lightfall

The Lightfall expansion takes players to the neon-soaked city of Neomuna on Neptune and pits them against the fearsome Shadow Legion — all while the threat of Darkness Pyramids, The Witness, and his new Disciple Emperor Calus looms overhead.

See at: Microsoft | GMG (Steam)

Destiny 2: Lightfall

The Lightfall expansion takes players to the neon-soaked city of Neomuna on Neptune and pits them against the fearsome Shadow Legion — all while the threat of Darkness Pyramids, The Witness, and his new Disciple Emperor Calus looms overhead.

See at:
Microsoft | GMG (Steam)

Jennifer Young

Jen is a News Writer for Windows Central, focused on all things gaming and Microsoft. Anything slaying monsters with magical weapons will get a thumbs up such as Dark Souls, Dragon Age, Diablo, and Monster Hunter. When not playing games, she'll be watching a horror or trash reality TV show, she hasn't decided which of those categories the Kardashians fit into. You can follow Jen on Twitter @Jenbox360 for more Diablo fangirling and general moaning about British weather.