Many a gamer spent the weekend in the Dark Zone as the closed multiplayer beta for The Division was underway. The beta was generally successful, but those playing the game on the PC ran into a little trouble.
Over the weekend reports began to pop up on Reddit and NeoGAF of rampant cheating in the PC version of the beta. Players exploiting the game were able to give themselves unlimited ammo, no recoil, super speed, and invisibility, among other game-breaking changes. Though this is exactly the sort of thing that betas are meant to expose, it still led to threats of cancelled pre-orders.
While many initially blamed the game’s servers or netcode, the problem was actually rooted in player statistics being stored on the client side. Once this was found out, it wasn’t tough for players to make alterations and hop online with newly beefed-up stats.
No server checks have been put in place to make sure that stats haven’t been altered, so nothing is currently stopping players from using this cheat. Multiple Ubisoft staffers have said that work on a fix is already underway.
“Guys, so you’re aware the things discussed here are not in fact hacks or cheats, but merely abuse of glitches that exist in the game currently,” a Ubisoft community manager wrote in a forum thread regarding the cheats. “These glitches are currently being worked on by the team.”
The beta period was extended to 3 am PT on February 2. Ubisoft said in another forum thread that this was to “allow everyone who has access to fully enjoy the beta.”
If you’re feeling confident that Ubisoft will resolve the issues before The Division is officially released, you might consider picking up the Season Pass. If you do, be sure to check out our rundown of everything included.
