Rainbow Six Siege’s secret new anti-cheat tactic is inflicting a stir

A rumor in regards to the secret workings of Ubisoft’s newest Rainbow Six Siege anti-cheat system has begun to provide the brand new tactic a heroic aura on the web. The declare going round on Twitter is that Ubisoft is doing one thing deviously easy: updating the Rainbow Six Siege executable each two hours, forcing cheat makers to sustain with an limitless treadmill of cheat-breaking adjustments.

There are causes to doubt the specifics of that rationalization, however one anti-cheat skilled tells PC Gamer that it really is a viable anti-cheat methodology. And even when Siege is not really being reborn each two hours, one thing related could also be taking place.

Ubisoft acknowledged final week that it is attempting out a brand new anti-cheat approach on PC, however to keep away from giving cheat makers any hints, the corporate will not say the way it works. The proof for the ‘new construct each two hours’ declare comes from posts in a cheat makers’ discussion board in addition to SteamDB logs, which do show that Rainbow Six Siege’s Steam information are being up to date with stunning frequency. 

One poster on that cheat maker’s discussion board describes the system in another way, nevertheless. Ubisoft is not sending each Siege participant a brand new executable each two hours, they are saying, however as an alternative created a bunch of distinctive executables just a few weeks in the past and has began distributing them to gamers randomly. The precept is comparable: Life will get more durable for skilled cheat-makers as a result of every of their prospects could now have a barely totally different model of the game. A Siege dataminer additionally says that that is what’s taking place.

Paul Chamberlain, former anti-cheat lead on Valorant and now head of a startup game studio referred to as New Avalon, tells me that the brand new builds each two hours thought is “an honest technique,” however can be “actually time consuming for a developer.” 

“I believe we do not see this method from game builders fairly often as a result of operational complexity, however I believe it may very well be efficient,” Chamberlain stated. “Even when it does not utterly stop dishonest it does make it tougher and costly to make cheats and raises the talent flooring required for brand spanking new cheat builders to deal with the game.”

If you happen to needed to go all out, nevertheless, it will be even higher to provide every participant their very own distinctive model of the game, “since that’d be the utmost quantity of effort for cheat builders to sustain with,” stated Chamberlain. As interesting as it’s to think about a RainbowSix.exe manufacturing unit that spits out a brand new model each two hours, that context does make the opposite rationalization sound extra possible: Ubisoft made a bunch of distinctive Siege builds (if not going as far as to make one per participant) after which distributed them randomly.

Each concepts are interesting for his or her simplicity. Cheaters hold selecting your locks? Simply throw new locks at them till they’re buried in them. You do not want technical data to know that, and it sounds delightfully like a Sisyphean punishment for cheat makers. Sadly, cheat builders can write instruments that assist them adapt, Chamberlain says, so no matter Ubisoft doing is not going to be the One Easy Trick that thwarts them endlessly. (We will dream, although!)

Ubisoft says it is “assured” in its new anti-cheat methodology, which was developed over latest months. The system has reportedly damaged Siege stat trackers, although, and Ubisoft hasn’t stated whether or not or not these benign third-party overlays will likely be usable sooner or later. The writer has already stated it will not reveal specifics about its anti-cheat strategies, however I’ve requested for touch upon the overlay subject.