Nearly 25,000 H1Z1 players banned for cheating

Perhaps taking a cue from Blizzard, Daybreak Game Company President John Smedley recently revealed on Twitter than nearly 25,000 H1Z1 players have been clobbered with the banhammer for cheating. He then went a little beyond what normally comes out of such announcements, referring to the site supplying the cheats as "cockroaches" who need to be put out of business.

But when users questioned his apparent support of the TMCheats site, and the wisdom of provoking people who use it, he took a much less lighthearted approach. "You don't think we know these cockroaches? We do. We are going to be relentless and public. Screw not provoking them," he warned. "As a proud PC gamer that site and others like it disgust me and we collectively need to put them out of business."

He was equally unequivocal when someone pointed out that the number of banned players added up to nearly $500,000 in revenue, replying, "I'm saying we don't want their damn money. We don't want them back."

Smedley didn't specify which cheats in particular had led to the bans, but the TMCheats site offers a number of H1Z1 hacks and cheats including aimbots, instant-kill weapons, the ability to shoot through walls, eliminate weapon recoil, and avoid falling damage, and of course various anti-cheating countermeasures. Not the sorts of thing, in other words, that are likely to make a game about surviving in a zombie-infested wasteland a whole lot of fun for other players.

We spoke with Smedley earlier this month about Daybreak Game Company, H1Z1, and what the future without Sony might look like. Read it here.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.