Fortnite's Battle Royale mode released in full last week and players have been enjoying the 100-person player versus player gameplay. But while most have been playing nice, some haven't been abiding by the rules, and now developer Epic Games has taken action.

In an update on the game's website, Epic confirms that it has banned "thousands" of Fortnite Battle Royale cheaters and it has "no plans to stop" waving the banhammer either. It explains that "addressing cheaters in Fortnite is the highest priority" for the company and that it is "constantly working against both the cheaters themselves and the cheat providers".

The company doesn't want to disclose exactly how the company is tackling cheaters, thus giving the cheaters clues on how to avoid being detected. However, the Fortnite developer does say that it is "rolling out tools" and will continue to do so. Epic also states that it is "exploring every measure to ensure these cheaters are removed and stay removed from Fortnite Battle Royale and the Epic ecosystem".

The flood of cheaters is likely due to the Battle Royale free to play launch, as cheaters don't have to worry about losing money in getting banned. Why play nice when they could play dirty, creating throwaway accounts to get ahead in the game?

Epic also explains that the upcoming addition of a Battle Royale progression system will address this line of thinking too. This account progression means that players will be able to earn additional loot as they play. The developer feels that this will help in the "war" against cheaters as they'll have less incentive to cheat at the game if it means that they will lose all of those progression rewards that they've gained on the way up.

At this point, it's unclear how effective the threat of a ban will be as a deterrent and it's also unclear whether that progression-based loot will be enough to discourage players from misbehaving. But as the Fortnite playerbase is seven million players strong and counting, its imperative that Epic Games takes serious action against these cheaters as so many well-behaved players will be affected. And as Fortnite is preparing for a free to play launch next year, that figure is only going to grow and so the sooner Epic makes it clear about what's unacceptable, the better.

Fortnite is out now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Epic Games