Like some kind of bat signal for FPS players who like to ruin the fun, the Battlefield 6 open beta’s popularity has already attracted a number of cheaters.
Players have found evidence of people using wall hacks to easily track enemies no matter where they go. And it’s happening despite EA’s kernel-level anti-cheat, Javelin, that is surprisingly picky about what kind of PCs it’ll run on. According to a post by EA’s anti-cheat team, Secure Boot “is not, and was not intended to be a silver bullet,” and the system needs a constant feed of new data to keep up with the different kinds of hacks people deploy. But that doesn’t mean the cheaters are getting away clean.
In the last 40-something hours since the open beta launched, Javelin has “prevented 330,000 attempts to cheat or tamper with anti-cheat controls,” EA says. It added that the accounts that are confirmed to be cheating are actively being removed from the beta by the Battlefield Positive Play team.
“Anti-Cheat isn’t one and done, it’s an ever evolving battlefield, and what has worked for us previously or in different games doesn’t always work in all of them,” the anti-cheat team said, urging players to keep reporting anyone they suspect is playing unfairly.
Even if it sounds like the system’s working, there are still many players who aren’t thrilled about being forced to let yet another anti-cheat have access to the most vulnerable part of their PCs.
You can’t even play the open beta without a rig that’s new enough to support it, and Linux players are just locked out completely.
It’s a contract you sign hoping the intrusion makes for a better multiplayer experience, but seeing cheaters on day one given the higher security requirements isn’t the best look. Hopefully what EA says is true and there won’t be a surge in cheaters when the early access period is over and the Battlefield 6 open beta goes wide on August 9.
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