Apex Legends is no doubt one of the hottest video games right now, especially after the free-to-play battle royale shooter hit 50 million players a month after it was released. Of course, as with anything that has garnered that much fame, it is not surprising that the game has also attracted the attention of cheaters seeking to gain an unfair advantage over other players.
Last month, developer Respawn Entertainment took a firm stance against cheating after the studio banned at least 16,000 players who were caught red-handed in Apex Legends. Now, it seems that Respawn is taking firmer action against cheaters, specifically on the PC, by hammering down permanent bans not only on the accounts of the perpetrators but also to the gaming hardware used for playing the game.
In a report published by Daily eSports, multiple cheating forums revealed that several people have already had both their accounts and PCs banned from ever playing Apex Legends again. To top it off, once Respawn detects another account associated with the same PC, the developer will flag down the secondary account and have it banned within 30 minutes. It's reassuring to know that Respawn is pro-active in combating cheaters in the game for the sake of maintaining fair and balanced gameplay for everyone. However, it seems that players are demanding more after a Reddit post made rounds online several days ago rallying players to demand Respawn to put a region lock on China, which is reportedly where most cheaters are located.
Of course, cheating in video games is not a new thing and has been a long-standing problem especially for developers of multiplayer online games such as Apex Legends. While the permanent hardware ban may curb the majority of these notorious players, it is not surprising if a few of them will be able to find clever ways to bypass Respawn's actions. If the hardware ban proves to be inefficient in the long run, it is not unlikely that Respawn would be forced to take up matters to the courts, which is how Epic Games handles cheaters in Fortnite.
Apex Legends is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: Daily eSports