GTA Online Cheat Creator Hit With $150,000 Fine
As gaming gets bigger and bigger in this day and age, so to seem the penalties for opportunistic cheat-makers. Among the game companies leading the charge is Rockstar Games, who’ve continuously shown little restraint in cracking down on players who exploit the world of GTA Online.
Following the raiding of cheaters’ homes towards the end of 2018, Rockstar has again laid down the hammer of justice on another nefarious creator. As TorrentFreak (via Kotaku) reports, Florida resident Jhonny Perez has been handed a hefty fine of $150,000 following his hand in creating a cheat program known as “Elusive.” The six-figure penalty was delivered after finding Perez guilty in a New York district court, punishing him for the crime of “copyright infringement” on top of an additional $70,000 in legal costs.
“Elusive” dropped on Rockstar’s radar for a pretty evident reason, the $10-$30 program introducing a myriad of ways to cause chaos in GTA Online. One of the more noteworthy capabilities allowed for the creation of unlimited in-game currency, a big no-no with community-based games as it throws off the game’s economy, not to mention being vastly unfair to all the other players.
It’s stated that Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two had previously attempted to approach Perez privately about “Elusive,” hoping to stop the program’s sale and settle the matter out of court. They also reached out to obtain financial details in order to gauge the amount of revenue the program generated, but was a resolution was unable to fully manifest. Take-Two saw no option but to pursue the maximum penalty in court, showing the company’s continued unwavering stance towards those who abuse their games.
What do you think? Are you glad to see this explout out of GTA Online, or does $150,000 seem like a bit much for something like this? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter and Facebook to be informed of the latest gaming and entertainment news 24 hours a day! For more headlines recently featured on DFTG, check out these next few news stories:
Eric Hall2712 Posts
Phone-browsing Wikipedia in one hand and clutching his trusty controller in the other, the legendary Eric Hall spreads his wealth of knowledge as a writer for Don't Feed the Gamers. Be sure to catch his biweekly "Throwback Thursday" segment for a nostalgic look at trivia from the past.
