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Windows Central

Technology

Brendan Lowry

"Successful disruption of the cheater community" — Battlefield 6 says its kernel-level anticheat EA Javelin has been a huge success, so dealing with Secure Boot was worth it

EA SPORTS Battlefield (Organization) Javelin Battlefield Studios Electronic Arts Samsung Xbox Black Friday (Topic)

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Ever since the dawn of online multiplayer gaming, cheating has been a constant issue that game developers have had to combat with anticheat programs that prevent or detect hacking attempts, and then ban the account responsible shortly thereafter. Many turn to third-party solutions like Easy Anti-Cheat or BattlEye for this, though some studios opt for first-party software developed in-house.

Games published by Electronic Arts (EA) use one such proprietary program called EA Javelin, noteworthy for being a kernel-level anticheat — a controversial solution that operates at the deepest level of your computer's operating system, past your system's other security measures, to work more effectively and efficiently.

The true efficacy of kernel-level programs has been in question ever since they became as fairly widespread as they are now, with many arguing that such deep access to your operating system isn't necessary for an anticheat to do its job. For its hit new FPS Battlefield 6, though, EA and Battlefield Studios say that Javelin has been hugely successful.

That news comes in a new report from the Battlefield developer in which it was announced that since the game's October 10 launch, 2.39 million cheat attempts have been blocked by Javelin, with 190 different cheat sellers/programs detected and 183 (96.3%) of them reporting failures or announcing takedowns as a result.

Battlefield Studios also announced that in the shooter's opening week, it had a Match Infection Rate (MIR) — a measure of the percentage of games with a cheater in them — of just 2%, meaning 98% of Battlefield 6 games in that time were hacker-free. A graph further shows that in the month after launch, that number has only slightly grown to an average of about 2.3-2.5%.

A big reason for this "successful disruption of the cheater community" was the ability to test and improve Javelin during Battlefield 6's Open Beta weekends in August, during which over 1.2 million cheating attempts were thwarted, and the number of cheater-free matches rose from 93.1% to 98% by the time the beta was concluding.

The widespread use of Secure Boot — a security feature enabled in your motherboard BIOS that combats malware and other untrustworthy software — was also a factor, with adoption of the required setting rising from 62.5% to 92.5% by the beta's end.

Enabling Secure Boot is kind of a pain, and in some other FPS titles like recent Call of Duty games, it, as well as kernel-level anticheat, has struggled to effectively counter cheaters. Javelin appears to be taking advantage of the feature to great effect, however, so digging into your BIOS to turn it on is worth the hassle in the end.

Of course, the fight against cheaters is never-ending, so Battlefield Studios intends to keep winning it by continuously improving Javelin's systems while also making it easier to report players.

It also plans to address the use of third-party "cheating hardware" peripherals like the Cronus Zen that convert mouse and keyboard inputs into controller ones, giving M&K users access to gamepad aim assist. The developers acknowledge that some use these for accessibility, and recommend official solutions like the Xbox Adaptive Controller and PlayStation Access Controller.

Cheaters using sniper rifles to dominate entire servers is a big problem in many FPS games, but so far, Battlefield 6's anticheat defenses have held strong. (Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Ultimately, it's great to see that cheating has been kept an extremely minor issue in Battlefield 6 thus far; speaking anecdotally, I've put over 120 hours into multiplayer at this point and haven't come across a single offender. It remains to be seen if that remains the case in the long term, but hopefully EA and Battlefield Studios remain this vigilant.

Battlefield 6 is in the middle of a free trial week right now, and is available permanently for $69.99 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5. Notably, the Xbox version is selling for just $60.69 at Loaded, as is the EA App edition on PC, thanks to Black Friday.