PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp. is rolling out one part of the studio’s anti-cheat initiative to the PC version in a new update today.
The patch seeks to block programs that run alongside the game and modifies the game files in a certain way. Some of these programs can give players an unfair advantage though cheats or altering the graphics. ReShade, a popular third-party program that can change the graphics through extra features not present in the original game, will be blocked once the update is live, though the studio notes players will not be banned for having it installed.
“You will not be banned for having it on system but you will no longer be able to play PUBG while it is installed,” wrote community manager PUBG_FWG in a forum post. “Please uninstall ReShade (or any other blocked program) and launch the game again. Some players may find that reinstalling PUBG is also necessary.”
The community manager also wrote that other third-party applications, such as NVIDIA ShadowPlay and other capture software, may be temporarily blocked by the new update. These programs do not affect gameplay, and the developer will be working on restoring functionality as soon as possible. The patch is scheduled to release on Feb. 5 at 9 p.m. ET with no server downtime expected.
The popular PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has become a hotbed for cheaters and hackers since the game’s Steam Early Access release last March, with the game’s BattlEye service reporting 1.5 million account bans at the end of 2017. The service updated the statistic earlier this week with over 1,044,000 bans in the month of January alone, also saying “unfortunately things continue to escalate.” PUBG Corp. outlined its anti-cheat initiative last week, which involves disabling Steam account family sharing, an upgraded in-game report function, and file modification that comes with today’s patch.
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