While the current percentage of suspected cheaters represents an improvement relative to the past, our work is far from complete. As a result, since June 2023, we have observed metrics aligning with or surpassing previous benchmarks.
In response, we have embarked on two missions: to fortify our countermeasures and to prevent cheaters from re-entering the game. However, from October 2022, the situation deteriorated as it showed a resurgence in the percentage of suspected cheaters due to several challenges, including an uptick in the circumvention of hardware bans. This was achieved by deploying our proprietary Anti-Cheat system, Zakynthos, and making enhancements to our hardware ban system. Today, we'll focus on the most important one, the "Percentage of Suspected Cheaters," to explain the current state of Anti-Cheat.Īs outlined in our December 2021 Dev Letter, we've reduced the percentage of suspected cheaters by around 47% since the second half of 2021. Our Anti-Cheat Team analyzes various internal metrics to track the state of illegal software. 2021 ~ 2023 Understanding Metrics and Current Status We'll delve into the Anti-Cheat initiatives undertaken since our previous Anti-Cheat Dev Letter in December 2021 and give you a sneak peek at our plans for the remainder of 2023. In today's Anti-Cheat Dev Letter, we embark on a retrospective journey through the first half of 2023 and offer a glimpse into our future plans. Among the various topics that have garnered your inquiries, there's one that particularly stands out: What steps are we taking to address cheating? So you can see where the devs are coming from on trying to shore things up ahead of the launch of the free game, as it will only get one chance to make a good impression on newbies.As we near the latter half of 2023, we've seen some significant changes within PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS since the unveiling of our 2023 Roadmap. Of course, if the large influx of free players find themselves absolutely owned by clearly cheating opponents, that won’t leave a good taste in the mouth. There are other fears around kernel drivers (in general) possibly leaving users open to exploits or other collateral damage, too, but with a sound implementation, that shouldn’t happen. Or, as the fear is here, these particular kernel drivers could leave Steam Deck owners, and all Linux gamers, out in the compatibility cold but we don’t know that for sure yet.
PUBG’s fresh anti-cheat drive might cause thorny issues, but Valve may be able to work around them, perhaps – the company has made big promises around supporting anti-cheat tech on the compatibility front, as you may remember. When the Steam Deck starts shipping the month after PUBG goes free, owners may well expect to be able to try out the battle royale on their shiny new hardware.īut before we get carried away, that could still happen. However, it’s a seriously popular game on Steam – it’s the third most played game on the platform as we type this, behind CS: GO and Dota 2 – and with the move to free, we can expect its popularity to boom as folks who’ve never played before get on board. Why the fuss over this, you might be thinking? It’s just one game, after all. Mainly because said kernel drivers are implemented for Windows, and are something that’s likely to prove a serious spanner in the works for Proton, the compatibility layer which the Steam Deck will employ to run Windows games on its Linux operating system (SteamOS 3.0).Īnalysis: Let’s hope PUBG cheats – who must be dealt with – don’t cause collateral damage