Battleye Anti-Cheat: What It Is and Why Games Use It?
People have been cheating at games since like … forever. A game doesn’t have to be played on a computer to motivate users to cheat in it; everything from cards to monopoly is prone to cheating.
With computer games, there is often more scope to cheat. Players are usually not present in the same room, no one else can see what’s running on a system, and the cheats are hard to detect.
One popular example of a game where users have been caught cheating is Among Us. Players use cheating software to control their in-game color to confuse other players when they kill, and they use it to always be assigned the role of ‘Imposter’ in the game.
The problem with cheating in online games is that other players can’t do much about them. They are end-users like everyone else and no one can take control of another’s system. To fight cheaters, games and the servers they are deployed on have to tackle them proactively.
Battleye Anti-Cheat Software
There are different ways that games prevent players from cheating one of which is Battleye. It is anti-cheat software that games implement themselves and is used on servers that host games.
Not all games use Battleye as it isn’t the only way to prevent cheating but there are some popular game titles (those developed by Ubisoft) that do use it and those that do not. Battleye can be run by Windows 10 users on their desktop before they connect to a game server.
Pros & Cons of Battleye
Battleye has one and only one purpose which is its biggest feature; preventing cheating in games. As for the cons, users have complained that;
- Battleye is resource-hungry. It claims to need very little system resources to run but many people have complained about its CPU and memory usage.
- Battleye sends files from a user’s system to its servers though these don’t contain personally identifiable information.
- There is some mistrust surrounding Battleye and other anti-cheat apps which may turn users off from using it or playing games that use it.
- The anti-cheat software does run into problems from time-to-time and doesn’t always update in time for a new/major Windows 10 feature update.
Install Battleye on Windows 10
Battleye is used by games and generally, users do not have to install it. When a game is downloaded and installed, Battleye is installed alongside it. When you run the game, Battleye is run as well. An example of such games is Assasin’s Creed by Ubisoft,
Manually run Battleye on Windows 10
If you’re playing a game that does not support Battleye and does not have any other anti-cheat checks, you can run Battleye on your desktop.
- Download and run Battleye.
- In the Command Prompt window that opens, enter N and tap Enter to start a new session.
- Enter the IP address of the server that you want to connect to.
- Begin your game.
Can Battleye be bypassed?
Battleye, like any other anti-cheat software, can be bypassed. Those that develop cheats make it a point to develop them so that they can beat Battleye and the like. This doesn’t make the software useless. Much like viruses will try to get around an antivirus, and the antivirus must update constantly to block attacks, Battleye must do the same with hackers and cheaters.
What happens to cheaters?
normally bans cheaters from playing a game. This is done by black-listing the computer that cheatware was detected on. The bans may or may not be permanent, depending on the game that you’re playing.
Battleye does claim to have a global banning system which means that if you’re cheating in a Steam game that is protected by Battleye, and you’re caught, you may be banned from playing all Steam games that use Battleye regardless if you cheated in them or not.
Block Battleye in games
You can block Battleye in games with a simple switch. The trick to using the switch is to use it when you run the game. The process differs from platform to platform but here’s how you can block Battleye in Steam games.
- Open Steam and go to your library.
- Right-click the game you want to block Battleye in and select Properties from the context menu.
- Go to the General tab.
- Click inside the Launch options field.
- Enter this switch
/belaunch -be. - Close the window and run the game.
Battleye Conclusion
Games that use Battleye may or may not disclose it on the game page. If you’re playing a game that doesn’t use Battleye, and you do not want to run a session of it yourself, you should check what other anti-cheat measures that game takes. As mentioned before, Battleye isn’t the only app that blocks cheats in games. You have other options, as do game developers.
