It is not uncommon for the makers of cheat software to be sued by the companies whose games they tinker with sooner or later. For example, Activision sued the makers of Call of Duty: Warzone cheats in August 2020, and in 2019 Ubisoft sued the hackers of Rainbow Six Siege who decided it was a good idea to appear on the BBC.

But two major game studios teaming up with a cheat maker in a single lawsuit is certainly something that has never happened before, and it is unusual. But it just happened: Riot Games, the developer of Valorant, and Bungie, the developer of Destiny 2, have filed a joint lawsuit against a hack maker called GatorCheats.

The lawsuit, which is posted in full at Polygon, points out that both Destiny 2 and Valorant are free, and that Bungie and Riot generate revenue through the sale of virtual items in the game. They argue that the success of the system depends on attracting and retaining a large audience willing to invest money to "enhance the experience," and that the existence of cheats actually runs counter to that.

"An important part of the player experience is the fairness and integrity of the game, which is why Plaintiffs have invested a great deal of time and money to ensure that all players are on equal footing and have a fair chance to progress in the game," the suit states.

"If players perceive that others are cheating or have an unfair advantage, they will become frustrated with the game and stop playing. The result could disrupt or destroy the game's player community and seriously damage the plaintiff's ability to generate revenue and maintain, improve, or expand the game.

Interestingly, according to the complaint, Bungie issued a cease and desist order to GatorCheats owner Cameron Santos in November 2020, and Santos agreed to remove the Destiny 2 cheats from his site. Shortly thereafter, however, he promised his customers that he would continue to support copies of GatorCheat sold in the past. Furthermore, Bungie believes that even though he removed the Destiny 2 cheat software from the publicly accessible area of the GatorCheats website, he continues to offer it privately.

Bungie and Riot seek an injunction against the distribution of the Valorant and Destiny 2 cheats, the termination of support for the existing GatorCheats software, all GatorCheats sales in the United States, all revenue derived from all GatorCheats sales, various damages damages and attorneys' fees. No figures are mentioned at this time, but the lawsuit alleges that the two studios have lost "millions of dollars in revenue," while also noting that GatorCheats charged exorbitant fees for its services: $90 per month for Valorant cheats, $250 for 3 months, lifetime subscription $500, and Destiny 2 cheats were $100 for 3 months and $200 for lifetime.

"Riot is committed to protecting these values for its players, so if we become aware of cheat makers, we will definitely go after them," a Riot representative told Polygon. The lawsuit was filed on January 8 and is not yet ready to go to court, but it is already having an impact: the GatorCheats website and store have had their content almost completely removed and are now listed as "under construction."

Update: Bungie did not comment on the reason for the lawsuit with Riot, but expressed similar sentiments about the cheaters." A representative said, "Unscrupulous players negatively impact everyone's gameplay experience and have the potential to ruin our community's hard-earned achievements. Bungie takes the threat of cheaters seriously, including pursuing cheat makers who profit from players."