Escape From Tarkov Dev Issues Update On Cheating

When it comes to live service games, publishers and developers always try to stay one step ahead of cheaters, often banning bad actors outright. However, contrary to popular belief, when it comes to players banned from the hugely popular extraction shooter game Escape from Tarkov, not all of those banned were actually involved in cheating.

In fact, according to newly released data from Battlestate Games, only 54% of banned players were cheaters. What about the rest? Well, the reasons vary.

As part of a larger anti-cheat update to coincide with the game's 1.0 release, Battlestate Games stated that it will now “step back from publishing lists of banned cheaters and will instead try to answer the hottest topics related to cheater battles and provide more in-depth statistics on the number of bans issued within a specific time period.”

Still, that didn't stop the developers from detailing the ban.

54% of blocks were due to fraud.
22% of the bans were due to RMT sellers and buyers. (RMT stands for Real-Money Trading, which in Tarkov means exchanging virtual goods and services for real money)
The remaining 24% of bans were due to “other” reasons.
- Others are defined as automated leveling bots, accounts using scripts, and other prohibited software.

“As the gaming industry evolves, anti-cheat has always been an ongoing effort as more companies enter the market with the clear goal of making money through cheating,” Battlestate wrote.

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So what's next?

In addition to providing an in-depth look at how and why people got banned, Battlestate also outlined its plans for the future, including new wrinkles to gameplay.

In the future, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot will be required to play games. Battlestate acknowledged the backlash the requirement received, but noted that “it's not something that completely prevents cheaters from entering the game, but rather forces some software to rewrite code and break functionality, which is what's needed in today's world.”

Apart from that, many more precautionary measures will be taken. This includes new detection systems that must keep pace with malicious actors.

“Fighting cheaters is still a cat and mouse game and will become more complex over time, but we remain committed to implementing new detection systems soon and reducing the number of raids cheaters can play before being banned,” the post read.

What you don't see is Battlestate going right after the cheat developers. If it makes sense, they will do so, but often “the happy outcome of a legal case may take a lot of time and will not justify the effort.” Instead, we'll focus on taking down ads and videos to help developers minimize their reach.

It's a huge update, but worth a read if you have the time or are interested in how the source material is made.