Developer Respawn Entertainment continues to put a great deal of time and effort into fighting cheats in its battle royale game, Apex Legends. Like other free online shooter games, the threat of hackers and cheaters who ruin a game is always present, no matter how well the developers try to dissuade them. Apex Legends was recently mentioned in a study that identified which games have the most hackers, but it appears Respawn is trying to distance Apex Legends from a bad reputation.
Apex Legends is currently in Season 8, and the developers have a lot to focus on besides the cheaters. Apex Legends will launch for the Nintendo Switch on March 9, and right now the developers are having a hard time balancing Caustic, a hero with a powerful ending that severely limits opposing players’ options as the games reach their limits. But despite these other areas of focus, Respawn has once again issued a wave of bans targeting tons of Apex Legends cheaters.
Conor Ford is Respawn’s head of security and deals with cheating complaints in Apex Legends firsthand. In a tweet yesterday, Ford stated that more than 600 players had been manually banned during the course of the day. In a wave of Apex Legends bans earlier this month that banned just over 500 players, Ford outlined the cheating method used by various PS4 players. There was no description of the specific methods in this wave, but aimbots and wallhacks are some of the most common cheat methods.
652 cheaters manually/individually banned today. Am tired. Love you all 🔨♥️
— Conor Ford / Hideouts (@RSPN_Hideouts) February 24, 2021
Most of the cheating appears to be happening on servers in Japan, and Ford also took some time on Twitter yesterday to specifically target Japanese gamers. He also stated that there are “plans in place” to improve anti-cheat measures in Apex Legends and that “they will be announced relatively soon.” Players excluded from Season 8 are only banned during the current season and will have the opportunity to play Apex Legends again once Season 9 arrives.
Hello
To all of my friends and Legends in Japan, I hear you and am just as tired of the cheaters on your servers as you are. I am dedicating a lot of my time this week to specifically focus on cleaning out your servers. Send everything my way, we will fight this together♥️🔨— Conor Ford / Hideouts (@RSPN_Hideouts) February 16, 2021
Okay to clarify my last tweet (since I see a lot of comments about this), this is going to be the first step towards a better solution. There are plans in place, that will be announced relatively soon, to help better this problem. I will keep everyone updated as always ♥️
— Conor Ford / Hideouts (@RSPN_Hideouts) February 17, 2021
Although some Twitter users were quick to ask why Ford appears to be the only person working to ban cheaters, there are also automated systems that work to identify cheats in games. Respawn will likely make use of these automated measures, in addition to dedicating other team members to support Ford in its mission to rid Apex Legends of cheaters.
Respawn has regularly responded to fan criticism in the past and seems to be actively involved in making sure Apex Legends is a fun Battle Royale experience. Respawn has indicated that they have seen complaints about the optics of the gold gun from both professional and casual gamers, so there could be a fix in the future. By now, Apex Legends players can at least know that there are 652 fewer cheats to ruin the games for everyone.
Apex Legends is currently available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4, and will be coming to Switch on March 9, 2021.
