Epic Games has announced significant updates to its approach to handling cheaters in Fortnite. The company is introducing a system designed to balance game integrity with opportunities for player rehabilitation.
Beginning in April, Epic Games will implement a new policy for first-time cheaters that replaces permanent bans with a one-year matchmaking restriction. This is a significant shift from the previous zero-tolerance methods, which were serious and didn’t allow much room for interpretation.
This new policy gives players who have committed initial infractions a pathway to returning to the game after demonstrating improved behavior. In other words, proving they learned their lesson. Under the new policy, players caught cheating for the first time will face a one-year ban from matchmaking. During this period, they will retain limited functionality within the game, specifically the ability to use text and voice chat features.
One stipulation is that these players will be prohibited from participating in matchmade experiences, spectating gameplay, or playing Epic- or creator-generated experiences. This means special levels or events outside of the regular gameplay.
This isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card; the consequences become more severe for repeat offenders. A second cheating violation will result in a permanent lifetime ban from the game. For competitive Fortnite players, the stakes are even higher. Those using cheats in tournament settings will immediately receive a lifetime tournament ban and may forfeit previously earned tournament winnings, even on a first offense.
This is not an idle threat either. Epic Games has sued players who cheated in Fortnite tournaments. So the company will get the prize money back one way or another.
Epic Games has also outlined its comprehensive strategy for combating cheating beyond administrative penalties. The company will employ multiple technical approaches to detect and prevent cheating, including game code obfuscation, kernel-level protection through Easy Anti-Cheat, and advanced statistical and machine learning algorithms to identify suspicious activity. The chance of Fortnite coming to the Steam Deck, with its Proton compatibility layer that doesn’t work with these low-level security protections, now seems even more remote.
The company’s anti-cheating efforts extend into legal domains as well. Epic has been actively pursuing legal action against individuals and organizations involved in cheating ecosystems. Recent legal actions have included lawsuits against account theft operations and players who violated tournament integrity. In one notable instance, legal pressure compelled Cronus, a manufacturer of gaming modification devices, to remove Fortnite-specific cheat scripts from their platform.
Epic is implementing new technical requirements for tournament participants to make sure they are playing fairly. Windows PC players will now need to enable two specific security features: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and Secure Boot. TPM provides a hardware-level verification mechanism that makes tampering with security settings extremely difficult, while Secure Boot prevents unauthorized bootloaders from initiating during system startup, a common method for cheat software deployment.
As part of the policy rollout, Epic will also be lifting lifetime bans that have been in effect for over a year. However, this clemency does not extend to players who have sold cheats or committed other serious rule violations that originally resulted in permanent bans. These are for the basic cheaters, not the bigger ones.
Combating cheating is a challenge that could last the lifetime of a game, especially in a bigger one like Fortnite. Cheat developers continuously look for new methods to circumvent detection systems, and game developers keep having to find ways to detect the cheaters. It’s a long game of cat-and-mouse.
The new anti-cheat policy will take effect in April, so there will likely be another spike in cheating for that month as some players will likely try again. Over time, this may be a great way to convince people to stop cheating, but I’ve got my doubts.
The main reason someone would go into an old account is for their items, skins, and exclusive content. That may be enough for some people to want to keep their account unbanned, but others will likely just make new accounts or change their IP Addresses with a VPN to avoid those kinds of bans. However, Epic Games may be a pioneer in the best way to combat cheaters; we’ll have to wait for April to know for sure.
Source: Epic Games
