Fortnite bans "thousands" of Battle Royale cheaters
"We have no plans to stop!"
Epic Games has assured players of Fortnite's new Battle Royale mode that it's on the case as far as tackling in-game cheating goes, and that it has already banned "thousands" of players.
Fortnite's recently released free-to-play Battle Royale mode did the job for Epic, and over one million players flocked to join in the Battlegrounds-esque fun on the first day of release. Inevitably, though, some of those were less than scrupulous about playing by the rules.
"Addressing cheaters in Fortnite is the highest priority across Epic Games," the company has explained in a new blog post detailing its approach to naughty ne'er do wells. "We are constantly working against both the cheaters themselves and the cheat providers. And it's ongoing, we're exploring every measure to ensure these cheaters are removed and stay removed from Fortnite Battle Royale and the Epic ecosystem."
Unsurprisingly, Epic is being coy about the precise steps it's taking to tackle cheaters, but it says that anti-cheating tools are currently being rolled out and will continue to do so. "Thousands have been banned and we have no plans to stop!"
One of Epic's more organic attempts to deter players from straying to the dark side will arrive in the coming weeks in the form of account progression. The new system will enable participants to earn stuff as they play, the idea being that it will, aside from being fun in and of itself, "help in the war against casual Cheaters and will give them less incentive to simply cheat their progression with a ban around the corner!" Other, presumably more nefarious, solutions will be deployed to tackle persistent trolls.
Eliminating cheating in online gaming is, of course, a never-ending game of whack-a-mole, as the likes of Blizzard and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer Bluehole know only all too well. Whether Epic's approach will prove any more effective remains to be seen.