Nothing ruins a multiplayer game like cheaters, and Ubisoft know this. The publisher has announced that they’re taking the hardest line possible for The Division: cheaters will be permanently banned from the game on their first offence, zero exceptions.
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“Player experience is and always will be at the center of everything we do and we are constantly looking at ways to improve it,” said The Division team in a statement on the game’s website.
“Following this campaign of suspensions and bans, it became clear that while huge progress has been made in terms of cheat detection, our 14 days suspension on first offense policy has not been dissuasive enough. Judging from your feedback, and based on what we witnessed when cheaters came back to the game, we have now decided to push our policy one step further: we will now start applying permanent bans on first offense when players are caught using cheat engines and we will communicate clearly when new ban waves are taking place.”
Recently Ubisoft improved the cheat detection systems within the Division, which provide constant checks on server activity. The beefed up security led to 30,000 accounts being reprimanded for cheating, among them 3,800 accounts that were permanently banned. “This led to a significantly improved experience, particularly in the Dark Zone,” said Ubisoft.
In a game that relies so much on other players, especially in terms of its end-game content, it makes sense that Ubisoft should take the hardest line possible. It’s the only way to keep The Division’s NYC a fair and enjoyable place to be. Hopefully the game’s cheat detection systems will continue to improve too, as in combination with permabans, it could be an effective cheat deterrent.
What do you think about cheating? Should a first time offence be punished with a permaban, effectively rendering the game useless for a player? Or is that too hash? Let us know in the comments.