Blizzard Awarded 88M From WoW Private Server Lawsuit

Tweet Private game servers are a controversial, often hushed topic in gaming circles. Some gamers enjoy the fee-free nature of private servers and others make use of these secluded environments to experience the MMO in a different way that the live game (for instance playing on the "classic" private server that doesn't permit expansion packs). No matter what the reason, game companies tend to frown on such actions. This week, Blizzard frowned at a particular private server and was awarded $88,000,000 for the effort. wow servers

Blizzard filed suit against Alyson Rives, owner of Scapegaming, and a private World of Warcraft Server in October of 2009. Reeves was profiting from the company by using microtransactions on it. The judge ruled that there was an actual copyright violation against Blizzard and ordered Scapegaming pay $85.5M in damages, $3M in improper profits, $63,600 in attorney fees as well as $85.5M in penalties imposed by law. Reeves may decide to appeal the suit at this moment.

Blizzard as in the bnetd cases, sends a clear message that those who attempt to alter their code shouldn't do this. Scapegaming's Facebook page isn't full of support for the company, and we can imagine that a lot of private server operators are thinking long and hard about whether the risk is worth the risk this week.