In case you’ve been living under a rock for a while, Apex Legends is pretty hot right now, but not always for the right reasons. It’s a tale as old as the video game industry itself so it should come as little surprise, but Respawn Entertainment is finding itself in the midst of a heated battle with cheaters looking for an easy way to victory.
Just the other week, the developer revealed that they had already banned over 300,000 players for cheating in the first month of release. With a base of more than 50 million people, that figure may look like just a drop in the ocean, but the problem of where such offenders are getting their hands on hacks and aimbot software remains.
Still, Respawn is clearly doing everything they can to fix the issue and for PC gamers in particular, they’re not only banning their accounts but their hardware, too. And the bans are permanent as well. Furthermore, if the developer detects another account associated with the same hardware, that account will also be banned.
Whether these measures will entirely solve the problem or not remains to be seen, but this is all coming at a pretty bad time for the game. After all, despite Respawn putting to bed rumors that the release of Apex Legends‘ first season of content is imminent, we know that they’re still toiling away on ambitious post-launch plans for the battle royale title, which will bring us at least one new character.
Octane, as he’s known to be called, is thought to be first on the list of new arrivals and will arrive in the live game alongside the first Battle Pass, which should be here this month. As always, keep watching this space for more.