Legal hacks to eliminate cheating in games

In the face of rampant cheating, it’s time for game developers to hack the hackers. For video game developers, a large portion of revenue comes from additional purchases made by the player base, including purchases of expansions to the base game and purchases of in-game microtransactions. Maximizing this revenue stream requires the game to retain players over long periods of time. One component of player retention can include offering a competitive multiplayer experience. However, as in any competitive endeavor, there is always the incentive to find a way to cheat to win. In this article, we will share some legal hacks game developers can use to push back on developers of cheating software. Unfortunately for game developers, the sale of software designed to cheat in these competitive matches can be a relatively lucrative industry. One group, known as ‘Chicken Drumstick,’ made more than $70 million selling cheats for a mobile version of the game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, for example. Such cheating software (‘hacks’) pose a risk to the game developer. Hacks compromise the competitive integrity of the game, which can lead players on the receiving end of such software feeling unsatisfied because they are playing at a relative disadvantage. If such hacks become widely adopted, large portions of a player base will inevitably stop playing the game, which, consequently, can result in lost revenue for the game developers. While game developers typically act to ban the accounts of known cheaters, the effectiveness of such actions is often limited and inherently relies on being able to readily detect the hacks. In the face of rampant cheating, it’s time for game developers to hack the hackers Almost all games use some form of cheat-detection software, such as Riot Game’s Vanguard or Activision Blizzard’s Ricochet, which look for certain third-party programs or modifications to the underlying game files. Even so, these ‘anti-cheat’ programs have their limits. For example, as with any security software, as the detectors are updated to identify new hacks or new updates to well-known hacks, the developers of the hacks begin to adapt and make their programs less detectable. This puts the game developers in an arms race with the more ‘reputable’ and successful hackers; one that often leaves the game developers woefully behind as they attempt to react. Game developers can ban the players that use known hacks and sometimes succeed in ‘killing’ a known hacking program, but so long as there is a market for these hacks, someone will invariably step in with a new, better, and more difficult to detect program. So, if more robust detection programs and banning actions cannot adequately solve the issue for the game developers, what can? The fight to stop hackers In recent years, game developers have looked to copyright law for respite. For example, companies seeking to protect the competitive integrity of their games have taken to the courts and filed suits against the hack developers directly. One recurring tool used by game developers is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In
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