In July 2021, Bungie and Ubisoft joined forces and filed a lawsuit against Ring-1 cheat seller, who has been selling cheat software for Destiny 2 and Rainbow Six Siege, along with many other competitive games including Overwatch 2, Valorant, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Apex Legends, etc.
At that time, Ubisoft and Bungie were seeking “$150,000 per copyrighted work infringed” and “maximum statutory damages of $2,500 per violation, in an amount to be proven at trial”. Now, as per the latest filing on this case (pdf here), it appears both companies are seeking a total of $2,364,265 in monetary award, costs, and fees.
“Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court enter a default judgment in favor of Plaintiffs and against Defendant Thorpe, for a monetary award of $2,237,760, an injunction in the form of the concurrently-filed Proposed Injunction, and costs and fees in the amount of $126,505.42.”
Bungie Banned 2,295 Players in Destiny 2 for Using Ring-1 Cheat
Ubisoft and Bungie shared approximate numbers for players using the Ring-1 cheat software in their respective titles (Destiny 2 and RS Siege). Based on Bungie’s declaration (pdf here), the developer has detected and banned “approximately 2,295 [Destiny 2] accounts for using the Ring-1 cheating software“.
Out of those 2,295 accounts, 1,099 of them are from the U.S., based on Bungie’s IP address analysis. The developer also states that this doesn’t account for the “ever-increasing number of users” who purchased the cheat software and are still undetected, using VPNs and IP spoofers.
Bungie estimates the actual number of players using the Ring-1 cheats since its launch to be “closer to at least 4,000, at minimum”.
“Bungie conservatively estimates that the number of U.S. players who used the Ring-1 cheat for Destiny 2 is 1,099, so the damages to Bungie are $1,582,560 ($1,440 per year, per user, multiplied by 1,099 users).”
Ubisoft Banned 1,823 Ring-1 Users In Rainbow Six Siege
Similarly, Ubisoft has also banned around 1,823 Ring-1 users in Siege, 592 of which are in the U.S. The publisher states (pdf here) that it is “confident that this number represents only a fraction of the total number of U.S. users who have used or are currently using the Ring-1 Cheat”.
“On the Ring-1 Website, R6S cheats are advertised at $50/month (or $600/year) and D2 cheats are advertised at $120/month (or $1,440/year). Thus, the damages to Ubisoft are at least $355,200 ($600 per year, per user, multiplied by 592 users).”
This is the first time a video game company sued a cheat seller for its games. Earlier this year, Bungie filed two lawsuits, one against a Destiny 2 streamer for cheating in-game and harassing Bungie’s employees, and the second against a YouTuber who sent 96 fraudulent DMCA takedown notices on behalf of Bungie.
