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- Rockstar added BattleEye anti-cheat, which banned people who cheated and had lots of money in the game.
- It falsely affected many innocent players’ accounts who never cheated. It was also not supported on Steam Deck, so its players were deprived.
- This caused a war where modders DDoSed Red Dead Online and GTA Online servers, and even BattleEye’s website, to retaliate.
GTA Online soared in popularity, so much so that Rockstar makes more than half a billion dollars a year. However, it was riddled with cheaters who used mods to gain an unnecessary advantage over other players.
Why Was Cheating Rampant?
GTA Online had no sign of anti-cheat for years, which allowed players to use mod menus in their online sessions. These menus allowed players to obtain unfathomable amounts of money, spawn vehicles and practically do anything.
Cheaters Killing Other Players
But these weren’t the source of the problem for anyone, including the innocent players. It became problematic when these cheaters used these mod menus to harm other players.
For instance, these cheaters would enable God-mode, where players won’t lose any health if other players try to kill them. Pair this with the ability to have an aim-bot, and you have a cheater killing innocent players without getting hurt.
Accessing IPs
But it didn’t just stop there. These hackers also evaded people’s privacy by accessing their IP addresses. There was even a time when cheaters could remotely modify or brick your account.
This had become very annoying in the GTA community, where nearly every online session was filled with hackers who took away the fun they used to have. This went on for nine years until Rockstar decided to add anti-cheat.
But Why After 9 Years?
GTA V Online is Rockstar’s cash cow, and ever since its release, it has gotten tons of upgrades, particularly over 50 content updates. Despite all these updates, they never implemented this anti-cheat. So why after 9 years?
Shark Cards
See, Rockstar made tons of money from selling Shark Cards, which allowed players to get in-game money. Even GTA V DLC was cancelled since GTA Online made so much money, and part of it is because of these Shark Cards.
Rockstar didn’t want people to hack their way into getting all the money because this is what people started doing. They watched a YouTube video, downloaded a mod menu and got themselves rich in-game, which was a losing point for Rockstar.
GTA 6 Online
Another reason could be that Rockstar has already made lots of plans for GTA 6 Online and wants people to trust the company that their next game won’t have this cheating problem.
Battle-Eye: A Blessing And A Curse
Now, Rockstar didn’t add any anti-cheat software, but they specifically went for Battle-Eye. This anti-cheat software monitors your PC and has the highest access to your system.
Great Action Against Cheaters
This proved very effective as the first GTA V Online ban wave was rolled out just a week after implementing this anti-cheat system, which reportedly affected 20,000 accounts.
Players were either suspended, had character resets, or were permanently banned. Now, these weren’t standard account bans. Rather, these were hardware bans where players would be banned from playing GTA Online on their PC.
With this implementation, there were reports that there was a significant drop in cheaters. It also initially scared off a lot of modders, and some even gave up the modding work for GTA V Online for good.
But Affected Innocent Players
While Rockstar’s ban wave was a good attempt, it wasn’t perfect. Many innocent players who’ve spent hours on this game and never cheated once became victims of this ban as well.
This anti-cheat looked for players with a lot of in-game money and started to ban them, which resulted in many players facing false bans. It seems like Rockstar wanted this anti-cheat to be added so players don’t get money by hacking.
Rockstar later sent out an appeal form where innocent players pleaded and, fortunately, got their accounts back. However, there was one more problem because of this anti-cheat system.
Unsupported On Steam Deck
Despite GTA V being the most popular game on the Steam Deck, this anti-cheat system prevented Linux from playing GTA V Online. In fact, it was unsupported on Steam Deck, which annoyed the handheld players.
Valve was kind enough to refund players the game because of this anti-cheat mess. However, the implementation of anti-cheat was still something that modders weren’t going to forgive.
Modders Started A War
This started a war between the modders and Rockstar. In an attempt to retaliate, these modders started DDoSing not only GTA V Online and Red Dead Online but also Battle-Eye’s website.
As if that weren’t enough, people have already created menus that work around the anti-cheat system. Now, bots are entering online sessions and using these menus to kick other players and freeze their games.
How Is The Cheating Situation Now?
Today, you can still find cheaters in your lobby that ruin the experience of the innocent players in one way or another. However, the cheater problem isn’t as much as it was before the anti-cheat, but it is still there.
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[Comparisons Expert]
Shehryar Khan, a seasoned PC hardware expert, brings over three years of extensive experience and a deep passion for the world of technology. With a love for building PCs and a genuine enthusiasm for exploring the latest advancements in components, his expertise shines through his work and dedication towards this field. Currently, Shehryar is rocking a custom loop setup for his built.
Get In Touch: shehryar@tech4gamers.com
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