Outriders will 'permanently' brand cheaters with shameful on-screen watermarks

Outriders cheaters
(Image credit: People Can Fly)

Outriders players do not want to get on People Can Fly's bad side. In a recent dev update looking forward to next week's launch, the studio revealed that cheating in Outriders will not only earn you stiff matchmaking penalties, but also a "discreet but visible" watermark that will never go away. Brands over bans, basically.

"Since demo launch this has been a hotly debated topic, so we wanted to provide some perspective on it as well as outline our policy regarding cheating and hacking going forward," the post reads. During the demo, People Can Fly identified around 200 cheaters out of 2 million total players. That's a measly 0.01 percent of the total player base, a percentage that the dev is confident "won't grow by much" when Outriders launches.

But just in case you're thinking of cheating your way to best loot in this cooperative game, People Can Fly is enforcing matchmaking restrictions on branded cheaters. You can still play alone, but you won't be able to matchmake with "legit" players, meaning squadding up could take forever. This is similar to the cheating hells some competitive games have applied as a punishment.

What exactly constitutes cheating in Outriders? People Can Fly defines it thus:

  • Intentionally running the game on PC without Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC)
  • Modifying game files to enhance a character: levels, skills, inventory, etc.
  • Externally modifying game time to reduce time-dependent features such as vendors and challenges
  • Using a trainer program or similar to gain advantages within the game
  • Using gameplay altering programs such as aimbots or wallhacks

Despite the fact that Outriders is a purely co-op game with no adversarial mode or microtransactions whatsoever, People Can Fly is not letting anything slide. It's interesting to see the studio find ways to discourage nefarious shenanigans without outright banning accounts. You're effectively just modding the game for yourself, but I can see why a godlike squadmate that kills everything in one shot isn't fun to play with. I had a similar experience in the original Borderlands when a rando player joined my game, dropped a crazy modded laser rifle that dealt a billion damage and then left my life forever. The laser rifle totally broke the game, but whatever, I had fun. (If you're out there, laser rifle angel, please find me in Outriders.)

As for the permanent shame brand, that seems aimed at enterprising YouTubers/Reddit posters that would otherwise fool people into believing their sick Technomancer build was earned through blood, sweat, and bullets.

"We can see you all. Yes, even the person who gave themself 600 Legendary Weapons."

People Can Fly also issued a warning to beta cheaters who'd like to get back on their good side before the full game launches. "If you cheated during the demo 'just to try it out' but wish to go into the main game unbranded, you must DELETE ALL CHARACTERS AND ITEMS ON YOUR ENTIRE ACCOUNT in order to wipe the slate clean."

That sounds fair enough. Outriders is launching brand-free for us legit players on April 1. The game is coming day one to Game Pass on console, but not on PC, tragically. 

Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.

Read more
talk to the joneses fortnite
Epic will give Fortnite cheaters 'a second chance' with a new, more forgiving ban policy, as long as they didn't do anything too awful or illegal
black ops 6 season 1
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has now banned 136,000 accounts as part of the ongoing struggle to ensure fair play but still says that IP banning isn't an option
talk to the joneses fortnite
Epic sues Fortnite cheater, donates his winnings to charity, forces him to publicly apologise, bans him for life, and all but sends him to his room without dinner
marvel rivals characters screenshots
'We will take measures to vanquish this nefarious behavior': Marvel Rivals will ban console players who use a mouse and keyboard
Marvel Rivals units - Three superheroes
Marvel Rivals admits that it accidentally banned some players for trying to run the game in a different operating system, which isn't cheating
talk to the joneses fortnite
Epic's war against the Fortnite fraudsters sees it simultaneously name and shame alleged ne'er-do-wells as its high-powered lawyers sue them
Latest in Third Person Shooter
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Steel Hunters hands-on
Steel Hunters is like a more tactical Titanfall, but as an extraction shooter it's undermined by boring loot
helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 composer recalls stomping around his apartment and channeling 'Super Patriotism' to capture Arrowhead's satirical vision in music: 'The satire works because the music believes it's a pure patriotic love without irony or criticism'
farcana
'The Middle East's answer to Marvel Rivals' is an 'AI-powered', crypto-infused hero shooter that looks like hot garbage
Marvel Rivals characters - Invisible Woman preparing to cast a shield.
'Searches for Invisible Woman went up 3,000%': Marvel Rivals devs innocently reflect on how popular some of their heroes have become
A Helldiver charges through the fire and flames in Helldivers 2.
Helldivers 2 CCO Johan Pilestedt says the industry's got it backwards by putting features over fundamentals: 'We talk way too little about the core philosophy'
Latest in News
A female druidic figure clutches a heart riven with thorns in Hunt: Showdown
'We want to increase the cost of silence': Hunt: Showdown 1896's latest update brings a new event, a massive list of bugfixes and a tougher challenge for stealthy players
It's ENA! From the free adventure Dream BBQ!
Mindbending free multimedia adventure ENA: Dream BBQ is out now, has activated all my neurons and opened my third eye
PC Gamer magazine issue 408 Doom: The Dark Ages
PC Gamer magazine's new issue is on sale now: Doom: The Dark Ages
A gigantic terracotta sentinel made of living armor
Total War: Warhammer 3's army of Cathay has broken containment and is making its way to tabletop Warhammer at last
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings