Cynical Software, a maker of cheats and hacks for games, has announced an immediate shutdown. The company announced the move under fear of legal action, although there has been no cases filed yet. The announcement came shortly after Activision filed a lawsuit against EngineOwning, a German software company known for making cheats for various Call of Duty games.
Activision is a very litigious company. Some of their lawsuits are a lot more valid than others. I don’t think anyone would really disagree with this particular instance of the weaponized legal system. It does really suck that it’s a signal that needs to be sent, but it is what it is. Activision and Blizzard, once the same company, have developed quite a reputation for legal threats and action. The company previously filed suit against other cheat sites. And Blizzard regularly went after botters in WoW.
The programmer outfit said it viewed the Call of Duty publisher’s lawsuit as “a warning […] that Activision [is] not messing around” when it comes to cheats. “Cynical Software doesn’t want any part of it,” said the company on its Telegram channel. Screenshots were shared on Twitter that showed the announcement, and that Cynical has gotten the message loud and clear.
Their primary business is in the selling of Warzone accounts. They sell accounts linked to various game modes and regions, as well as blank ones. Their target market is cheaters looking to buy their way back into the games they’ve been banned from. Cynical Software also creates tools for ban evasion, which allow cheaters to bypass hardware-based bans and other detection. With this shutdown, that effectively means their target market has dried up.
