The Division is now serving up first-offense permabans too

Just a few days after instituting a policy of first-offense permanent bans for Rainbow Six Siege cheaters, Ubisoft has brought the same harsh penalty to The Division. The publisher said in today's Improving the Player Experience blog post that a recent “intensive campaign” against cheaters resulted in actions being taken against more than 30,000 accounts, including 3800 permabans, but also led it to realize that more needed to be done.

“Following this campaign of suspensions and bans, it also became clear that while huge progress has been made in terms of cheat detection, our 14 days suspension on first offense policy has not been dissuasive enough,” Ubi wrote. “Judging from your feedback, and based on what we witnessed when cheaters came back to the game, we have now decided to push our policy one step further: We will now start applying permanent bans on first offense when players are caught using cheat engines and we will communicate clearly when new ban waves are taking place.”

Sure enough, The Division code of conduct was updated today, and under the “Cheating/Modding/Hacking” section, now includes the line, “Maximum penalty is permanent ban on first offense.” As with Rainbow Six Siege, the “maximum” modifier in there leaves open the possibility that lesser penalties could be imposed in some cases, but given that the code already allows for different types of punishment for different offenses—taking advantage of exploits, for example, will get you an account rollback and temporary suspension—it seems unlikely to be that Ubisoft would pull this club out of the bag if it didn't intend to hit people with it.

“We are committed to constantly improve your experience in the game, and this begins with ensuring a positive and fair environment free of noxious players willingly violating the rules,” Ubisoft wrote. “We will take all steps necessary to track down cheaters and make sure they cannot spoil your enjoyment of the game.”

Yeah, probably best to quit dicking around while you still can.

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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.