Source: HoYoverse
A self-proclaimed game hacker and co-developer of cheat software has been ordered by Canadian courts to pay CAD$1.5 million – thrice the amount sought by HoYoverse for damages.
On November 28, 2024, COGNOSPHERE, HoYoverse’s publishing label, filed a lawsuit against a known group that developed cheating tools and software for its game Genshin Impact.
The suit alleged that the group, known for developing and distributing a number of cheat tools called Akebi GC, Acrepi, and Genshin XYZ, committed violations of the copyright law and circumvented technological protection measures. The courts held a remote hearing, and a verdict was reached and handed to the named defendant, a self-proclaimed game hacker and lead developer of the cheat tools, Joaquin Soriano (who went by the codename ‘Taiga’), on November 25. Other members of the group are yet to be identified.
In an official statement made by DLA Piper, the law firm that COGNOSPHERE approached for this case, the judgement handed to Joaquin Soriano will award HoYoverse CAD$1.5 million in damages ($1.6 million in USD), and enjoin the defendant from “further infringement.”
Originally, HoYoverse only sought $50,000 in damages in the suit, but the ordered $1.5 million demonstrates that “video game publishers have recourse against those who fail to respect their intellectual property rights in Canada, and establishes a path to proceed against those who take advantage by undermining the efforts of fair play of game developers and other players.”
The $50,000 may have ballooned to the final compensation amount due to the fact that the defendant ignored the multiple warnings issued by HoYoverse about its distribution of cheat tools, and instead continued to distribute the cheat tools to contributors in a private discord server and on UnknownCheats.
From what could be researched online, the cheat tools provided players with invincibility, removal of cooldown on sprint, burst, skill, bow, unlimited stamina, and multi-targeting as an attack modifier, as well as a variety of in-game cheats that include teleporting, auto-completion, and a significant dumbing down of enemy AI. Additionally, the cheat tools also allowed access to special benefits that are locked behind in-game purchases.
Acrepi was closed in 2023, while Akebi GC can still be seen being used by a number of users online as recently as August 2024. Genshin XYZ was released in 2021, but no recent updates have been made available.
