“Rosebud” and “Motherlode” in The Sims. The Konami Code. The Blood Code. Those who know these names know one infallible truth – that for as long as we’ve had video games, we’ve had cheat codes. Mostly used at first by developers to help with playtesting and debugging, cheat codes have always been a part of the game. Like the carriage hitched to the back of the video game train.
For single-player games this has typically been a non-issue, as it only impacts that player's game by their own choice. We even list out a whole selection of cheat codes for The Sims 4 on our own site. But when it starts to encroach into multiplayer games, the fun is quickly dragged down. Communities such as those found in EA’s blockbuster IPs including EA SPORTS FC, Battlefield and more, all expect a fun and fair gaming experience. One where their skill, practice and dedication to improving are rewarded.
And so to protect our players and fans around the world, we took action. What came of it was our own proprietary software known as EA anticheat. The goal is for players to have a level playing field where results, progression and success are determined purely by merit. This allows our players to have a more secure gaming experience, preventing cheaters from impacting others’ gameplay, security and privacy.
And it’s evolving every day.
“EA anticheat allows us to uphold the integrity of the game. We want to be representing those players that have put hours into our titles and our games to know their accomplishments are based on merit.”
The growth and evolution of our industry-leading anti-cheat software
Initially launched in September 2022 with one of the company’s flagship titles, FIFA 23, EA anticheat has since grown to 10 titles and counting. Over the past 24 months, more of our development teams have seen the value in EA anticheat and have begun to utilize it as their anti-cheat software of choice to meet their increasing security and privacy needs.
EA anticheat has prevented nearly five million attempts (and counting!) to cheat in EA anticheat-protected games. This has led to over twenty million PC players enjoying fair play in more than one and a half billion PC gaming sessions. We plan to add more titles in FY25 in response to player excitement with our technology.
Truthfully, it’s all thanks to the remarkable and passionate team behind it–EA’s Game Security team. The team’s mission is to protect our players' experience throughout the gaming lifecycle by empowering our game developer community to build the most secure games on the planet and providing innovative and effective anti-cheat protections. Guided by our values of integrity, collaboration, and inclusivity, our team helps shape the future of gaming by solving the hardest problems.
It’s no small feat. But their success is no accident, either.
Elise Murphy, Head of Game Security, and AC Ward, Director of Anti-Cheat Engineering have been with the Game Security team since before launching EA anticheat. They took it from an idea to reality.
“We pulled this brand new team together and we thought, if we’re going to do this for one of our titles, we should look at this more broadly for all of EA’s games,” says Elise. “We were already bumping into hurdles with third-party anti-cheats, including using some from our direct competitors. And the thing with that is we can’t share a lot of our game code or data, and so we weren’t able to get the best protection for our games.”
“We’re a fast-acting team, and any time there’s been an issue we have been able to meet directly with teams, and get them what they needed in a very timely manner,” says AC.
Both Elise and AC point to their launch as proof of this. EA anticheat’s first game was FIFA 23, a blockbuster sports action title beloved the world over. The game leans heavily into online play and security is top of mind while keeping the game running smoothly and maintaining its integrity. EA anticheat had some issues at launch, but the Game Security team quickly responded to them and got it right back on track.
They did a remarkable job, and to this day the FC team is utilizing EA anticheat as one of their security tools.
Offering unique value to our game devs
As a kernel-mode anti-cheat and anti-tamper solution developed in-house, EA anticheat is able to level the playing field not only for our players in our world-class games, but also for our developers to have even footing with PC cheat developers.
And the Game Security team works with each developer to address their unique needs and meet their specific requirements.
“Whether it’s compatibility, marketplace integration, game safety, or even things outside of anti-cheat like game bugs and game crashes, our team is here to help,” says AC. “Because we’re an in-house solution, we can help and support in all these ways, from end-to-end, because nothing needs to be obfuscated. We are open to our teams, and they are open to us, and with that, we have continued to evolve EA anticheat into its best version yet.”
One element Elise and AC are particularly fond of is the ability for EA anticheat to update separately from the games.
“We’re not tied to the game updates themselves. They’re completely decoupled,” says AC.
And when they do deploy updates, the team has also developed a process that is being noticed by their peers across the industry for their innovation. They have a fleet of machines across the globe, ensuring they are geographically separated, and when a new update is ready, these test machines all run the updates and go through every single game title one-by-one in a fully automated process. No human needs to press a button to get the results.
“We will run every single one of our games to optimize it for the end user machine,” says AC. “We literally cannot ship our code without this step.”
“Our partnerships are also hugely beneficial, both externally and internally,” adds Elise.
Above all, Elise and AC have a customer-first mentality. They want EA anticheat to be used as much as possible, but they want to ensure it’s the right software for the right game.
“At the end of the day, we are trying to protect our players and make sure they are having a good time playing our game. EA anticheat helps make that a reality,” says Elise.
“At the end of the day, we are trying to protect our players and make sure they are having a good time playing our games. EA anticheat helps make that a reality.”
Dedication to privacy and security for years to come
At EA, we’re passionate about delivering unrivaled sports action, blockbuster IPs, and stunningly immersive game worlds. From the intense battles within the Battlefield franchise to the vibrant excitement of EA SPORTS FC 24 and beyond, our anticheat technology ensures a fair and thrilling experience.
Our ongoing updates and innovations are designed to enhance security and protect player systems while maintaining the seamless, enjoyable gameplay experience that our players expect. As we advance, EA anticheat will remain dedicated to upholding the highest standards of integrity and security in every game we support.
We understand that every studio has unique needs, and we’re dedicated to collaborating with our teams to tailor their needs for their exceptional projects.
Ready to make your play? Join EA to help us change the game.
