Ubisoft needs to get a grip of XDefiant’s hacker situation

Ubisoft’s Arena Shooter, XDefiant, has been making waves in the FPS world. As its popularity continues to rise, Ubisoft is now faced with the challenge of eliminating cheaters from the game.

Despite Ubisoft’s new FTP Arena Shooter gaining popularity, several players have reported encountering problems and negative incidents. There have been instances of XDefiant players exploiting game mechanics or even resorting to hacks to disrupt gameplay.

The game’s players have been utilizing Ubisoft’s official platforms to report these problems, primarily to XDefiant’s official X profile, where their complaints are visible to the public.

Despite this, there are still high expectations for Ubisoft to confront these issues directly.

On May 27, a user went on Reddit to report encountering a cheater in their game. This is a familiar issue, as I have also personally experienced it on European servers, although I have not yet captured any screenshots.

“They questioned, “What level of lameness must one possess to cheat in a game that was released just 5 days ago?”

Screenshot of a cheating player shared by Select_Land_5300 — Ubisoft/Select_Land_5300

Cheaters are easily spottable due to their unbelievable Kill/Death Ratio.

Prior to this, additional Reddit users had also reported experiencing blatant instances of cheating during their matches:

“Just 3 days after its launch, cheaters have already infiltrated the game. In a recent match, one player on the opposing team managed to rack up over 80 kills with a vector, effortlessly taking down players from all distances. The kill feed was dominated by this individual.”

It has been suggested that failure to promptly address this issue will result in the game experiencing a similar fate to that of The Finals, as seen in this tweet.

Despite being the viewpoint of a moderate group within the XDefiant community, it is important to note that if an issue persists for an extended period of time, it has the potential to rapidly spiral out of control.

FPS players are well-acquainted with such occurrences, as popular games such as Star Wars Battlefront, Battlefield, Tarkov, Apex, CoD, and many others have also faced this problem. Cheating remains a significant concern and is often cited as a leading cause for players to abandon a popular game.

Cheating or do they just have a better gaming chair? #xdefiant @PlayXDefiant pic.twitter.com/Z0MzSFUEMs

— STB Rairu 🤍❤️ (@LilRairu2K) April 21, 2024

The internal reporting system appears to be functioning properly, but there is room for improvement in its anti-cheat engine, BattleEye, to better detect instances of cheating in real time.

A prime illustration of an effective anti-cheat system is Ricochet, which detects cheaters in real-time and promptly removes or bans them depending on the severity of their cheating. However, due to its strict approach, some players have expressed frustration over being unfairly banned for minor infractions in the past.

Despite the effectiveness of establishing a direct line of communication with players in improving Early Access games, XDefiant presents a unique situation. Having already reached its Preseason phase, the game’s full release has resulted in a significant surge in popularity.

If Ubisoft wants to continue experiencing XDefiant’s success, they should consider taking notes from the developers of Gray Zone Warfare. It is important to listen to players and regularly update their anti-cheat system in order to prevent any potential issues before they escalate.