In a lengthy post to 343 Industries' Halo Waypoint blog, the developer detailed many upcoming features for the latest game in the Halo franchise, Halo Infinite. Specifically, the blogpost dealt with how the development team are handling Halo Infinite on PC, and how the game will avoid using intrusive DRM features utilized by other games.
Utilization of intrusive DRM for the purposes of anti-cheat has been a subject of much controversy over the last few years, with games such as Doom Eternal and Valorant coming under fire for using anti-cheat technology that could access your PC's kernel. Many players are not comfortable with any executable file having those kinds of permissions, let alone a file coming from a major company that could use any information gleaned from this practice for whatever purpose they wish.
For those who had concerns that similar DRM features might make it into Halo Infinite's expansive multiplayer when the game releases later this year, they can now be assured otherwise. Halo Infinite producer Jeff Guy stated in the blog that 343 is "fighting hard to ensure we don’t add intrusive DRM to our game." Guy then lets Michael VanKuipers, 343's security engineer interject with a more specific explanation of the company's anti-cheat philosophy: "When people do cheat, we're focused on catching them through their behavior and not from data that we've harvested from their machines."
With Halo Infinite, 343 are attempting to "make cheating more difficult in ways that don't involve kernel drivers or background services," as well as "making the tech investments needed today to continue the fight for years to come." At the beginning of the post, Guy calls Halo Infinite "A Halo built for PC players by PC players," with the anti-cheat aspect being a small part of why that is the case. The game will contain a huge amount of what Guy describes as "enthusiast features and customizability," including ultrawide and super ultrawide support, triple keybinds, the ability to play the game with a non-Xbox controller (or a mouse and keyboard on console,) as well as advanced sliders for mouse sensitivity on PC. There is also cross-platform support, along with accessibility options for people with photosensitivity and motion sickness and FOV sliders even on console ports.
Much of the Halo Waypoint blog post will be positive news to those awaiting the first true PC Halo. and the investments 343 are making into non-DRM anti-cheat will come as a big relief to those worried about the DRM practices of other developers, as well as likely helping to assuage the fears of those who want a strong crack-down on cheaters as well. Cheating has become a massive problem in other online shooters, including the free to play Call of Duty: Warzone, and many gamers are worried that the fixes can't come fast enough. 343 appear to be taking their time with Halo Infinite after its initial trailer failed to live up to the Halo community's expectations. One can only hope that the end product will reflect their efforts.
Source: PCGamesN