If you’re playing The Division on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, you probably haven’t encountered any cheaters, but the same thing can’t be said about the PC version of the game, where cheating is an increasing problem. Fortunately, it isn’t something PC gamers should have to endure — at least to the same level — for much longer.
In the latest State of the Game broadcast on Twitch, publisher Ubisoft revealed that a better method of dealing with cheaters was on the way, including the ability for players to report other players with a simple in-game command. This will arrive, along with a host of other features, in the game’s forthcoming April 12 update.
The first time a player is confirmed to be cheating, they will face a three-day “time out,” given without warning. If that isn’t enough to curb the player’s behavior, cheating a second time leads to a much harsher penalty, a permanent ban from the game.
“We are not going to pretend that we are 100 percent happy with the situation. It is something we’re working on, and we should have some better solutions coming in the future,” Ubisoft’s Yannick Banchereau says in the video. “We are looking at improving it. We are catching a lot of people, so it’s not as if there was nothing being done, but of course we can always improve on that.”
Players of The Division have already been reporting players to Ubisoft, but with the April 12 update, it will be much easier. Simply typing “/report [username]” will flag the account for closer inspection from Ubisoft. Players don’t need to worry about being unjustly banned from the game, as Ubisoft says it also has server-side tools to detect cheaters, and will closely monitor reported players to confirm that they were in fact cheating, and not just playing extremely well or using good equipment.
“I don’t want to diminish the situation or say you guys are wrong, that isn’t what I mean,” Banchereau said. “I just want to say when you’re reporting cheaters and then you see us not taking action against the guy, it could be because the guy was actually not cheating.”
The April 12 update, titled Incursions, will also bring a number of new features to the game, including Falcon Lost, the first Incursion — that is, raid — available in The Division. For a full list of the changes and additions, see Ubisoft’s patch notes.
