The anti-cheating legal battle prompted by Bungie has escalated as cheats company AimJunkies has accused the Destiny 2 developer's actions of being "ridiculous and absurd".
As reported on Torrentfreak, AimJunkies has denied that its Destiny 2 cheats are illegal or harmful and that Bungie has taken on a "bully mentality" because it is incapable of governing its own players.
Bungie filed the lawsuit last year, saying that AimJunkies violated its copyright laws by producing cheats, but the case was dismissed in May as U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly said there wasn't enough evidence to prove any copyright infringements. Bungie then reworked the accusation, however, and another complaint was filed a few weeks later.
"Do not believe everything you read in their filings," a press release from AimJunkies' parent company Phoenix Digital Group LLC reads. "In fact, do not believe 90% of what they assert in their filings.
"We believe Bungie and their counsel apparently believe the more s**t you throw at the wall, the greater the possibility of something sticking with the court, no matter how ridiculous or absurd it is in the real world.
"Understand cheating is not illegal and the game companies want to make it illegal because they cannot govern their own players. They are looking to the courts to do what they, Bungie, are impotent to do on their own, even with the vast resources and technologies at their disposal. They would rather suffer death by a thousand cuts than admit this is not the way to fix the problem."
The company claims it has offered to work through the problem with Bungie, and said it believes its features should be implemented into the game officially. "But their pride and bully mentality prohibits them from thinking out of the box," it added.
The retaliatory legal action will see AimJunkies subpoena Google, Paypal, and Valve as it seeks to gather evidence against Bungie. Unlike another recent Bungie lawsuit against cheats company Elite Boss Tech – in which it agreed to pay Bungie $13.5 million in damages – this legal battle will likely persist over the following months (perhaps years) as neither side shows intent to step down.
The developer has taken a no nonsense approach to any signs of cheating or misleading in its Destiny 2 community, as evidenced by these two lawsuits and another in which Bungie issued a virtual manhunt for someone who issued YouTubers with fake DMCA takedown, eventually suing the individual for $7.6 million.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.