Outriders will give cheaters a permanent watermark

That means you, Tommy

The launch date for Outriders is fast approaching, but before a host of new players descend on the servers, Square Enix and People Can Fly are laying down the law for any would-be cheaters.

In a post on the Outriders Steam page, the team lays out its plans for launch, including a day-one patch, bug fixes for issues noted during the game’s demo period, and a “Quick Mark” utility for your inventory, addressing concerns and requests brought forth by players. Unfortunately for cheaters, Square Enix has also taken notice of you.

“At the time when we reached around 2 million players, we identified 200 players who had clearly cheated,” the team writes. “In percentage terms, that’s 0.01%.” They even call out one person who gave themselves 600 Legendary Weapons, and while the team says it doesn’t expect the percentage to grow by much past launch, there will be steps taken against cheaters.

According to the blog, if you’re caught cheating, you will not be able to matchmake with non-cheaters, and so matchmaking will likely take longer, though you can still play solo. Most notably, in the future, cheaters’ heads-up displays will have a “discreet but visible watermark” on it, so any footage created using the account can be readily identified.

“Any account logs found to have evidence of cheating on them on or after launch day will be permanently branded,” the blog says. 

There is one ounce of leeway being given to demo cheaters thinking about changing their ways: the Outriders team says that if you wish to join the main game without the watermark, you have to delete all characters and items on the entire account in order to wipe the slate clean. This means absolutely no carryover in any form from the demo into Outriders proper.

Listed cheats include using a variety of programs, like trainers, aimbots, and wallhacks, as well as modifying game files or running the game without Easy Anti Cheat on. The blog does specify that using performance tweaking software or farming does not constitute cheating.

This is a pretty firm stance, though the studio says it reserves the right to update and change the policy in the future. But basically, it’s what I like to call a “Don’t Be That Guy” rule: don’t cheat, and you won’t have an ugly watermark forever branded on your account.

Outriders will launch on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PS5, and Stadia on April 1, 2021.