Just days after Warzone 2 updated its anti-cheat practices to weed out players using third-party devices like the infamous Cronus, Destiny 2 developer Bungie is breaking out the ban hammer to pound the same peripherals into dust.
"Bungie's stance on third-party peripherals entering their villain arc," reads the opening salvo of the studio's latest blog post. "Our community has grown increasingly frustrated by a form of cheating that uses third-party peripherals with the intent to manipulate the game client. These devices are plugged into a computer or console, where they can—for example—execute simple scripts or trick the game into giving you extra aim assist."
"You’ll note that we aren’t calling out the services by name, the primary reason for that is we simply don’t want to offer a bigger spotlight than necessary," it adds, but there's little doubt as to what devices Bungie's referring to, nor are they a grand secret. That being said, while Bungie "embraces the use of external accessibility aids that enable an experience the game designers intended," using these things to gain an advantage will now result in a swift suspension or ban.
To avoid hurting players with genuine accessibility intentions, Bungie's clarified its definition of illegitimate peripheral usage. It also has a separate page on its Accessibility at Bungie initiative. Cheaters know who they are, but for clarity's sake, this is probably the best explanation: "We do not intend for difficulty to be automated away via software or hardware. Therefore, simply using an accessibility aide to play Destiny 2, where a player could not play otherwise, would not be a violation of this policy. Using these tools to mitigate challenges all players face, such as reducing recoil or increasing aim assist, would be a violation."
As you'd expect, an unfair advantage would apply if "players that abuse these tools rise in PvP ranks at a rate far beyond what is expected for a player improving through typical play." Bungie will also watch for such devices when validating Destiny 2's world-first raid races. Anyone caught cheating this way will receive "restrictions and/or bans appropriately," to the delight of legit players everywhere.
Last week, Bungie acknowledged Destiny 2 Lightfall's divisive launch and committed to major changes based on player feedback.
