Ubisoft has been on a bit of a purge with Rainbow Six Siege, having announced that it just banned 3,800 cheaters on PC.
This newly focused wave of bans is a result of the BattlEye system, that was put in place by Ubisoft with the express purpose of weeding out cheater cheater pumpkin eaters.
Just last week, the company warned that it had ‘been tracking various cheating softwares’ and was gearing up for action – a promise it has clearly made good on.
Ubisoft said on the Rainbow Six Siege website:
With this first wave of bans from BattlEye, we are establishing a firm stance to protect the game and the community for the long run. In the future, BattlEye will be banning much more quickly, sometimes in real-time. Ban waves with longer delays can still happen, but usually bans for detected cheaters should take a few days maximum.
In addition to BattlEye, Ubisoft also uses the FairFight program, which uses algorithmic models to identify cheating behavior. BattlEye has been employed with more of a focus on prevention rather than behaviour.
Of course, the company expects to rid Rainbow Six of plenty more cheaters in the coming months:
Moving forward, we will be taking many actions to prevent cheaters (some you’ll see, some you won’t) in order for you to fully enjoy the intensity and competitive nature of the game while being confident your game is fair.
It seems like BattlEye is pretty much the Liam Neeson of cheat detection software; it’s not a case of if it comes for you – it’s when.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.