Video game cheating has been around for as long as video games. But the eternal issue has once again hit the headlines – and developers are struggling to cope.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Destiny 2, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Valorant have all been under the spotlight recently for cheating, with players reporting matches ruined by aimbots, wallhacks and other prohibited power ups.
Cheating is a prominent issue for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and its free-to-download battle royale Warzone, with Infinity Ward recently announcing it had banned over 70,000 Warzone cheaters alone. And just this week, under pressure from its community, Infinity Ward announced it had stepped up its war on cheaters, saying it had devoted extra resources to combat cheating, and it would force suspected cheaters to play against each other.
“Cheaters not welcomed in Call of Duty: Warzone,” Infinity Ward declared in a subsequent blog post. “There’s no place for cheating in games. Warzone has zero tolerance for cheaters.”
Call of Duty Warzone Cheating needs to be fixed ASAP Watch on YouTube
Bungie has also come under fire from its community over cheating – this time in Destiny 2. It responded with a lengthy and unusually transparent post on Bungie.net, where it revealed cheating in Destiny 2 is up roughly 50 per cent since January, “and significantly more in the highest skill echelons”.