Hi everyone, my name is Peter Lindgren and I'm the Technical Director of Helldivers 2. I've been making games at Arrowhead since the Magicka days and I've been involved in every game we've released to date. I will do my best in this post to address the concerns and confusion that's come up recently regarding the choice of Anti-Cheat software in Helldivers 2. So, let's start off with the more urgent questions:

Is GameGuard a kernel-level / administrator-priviledge anti-cheat?
Yes, GameGuard is a "kernel-level", aka rootkit, anti-cheat. Most anti-cheat run at "kernel-level", especially all of the popular ones. It's unfortunately one of the more effective ways to combat cheating. There are some anti-cheat systems that can run in "user-mode," but they are much less effective and tend to be cracked very quickly, resulting in widespread cheating.

The Call of Duty RICOCHET Anti-Cheat team announced earlier this month that their newly updated system was capable of detecting "third-party hardware devices that alter the Call of Duty gameplay experience" - this makes reference to a plethora of gaming input modification devices including the Cronus Zen/Max, XIM Apex and FPS Boost Strike Pack. All readily available from direct stores, Amazon and various e-tailers. These hardware modules are hooked up to a gamepad or mouse plus keyboard combination, and allow the user to bypass the legitimate control input detection on the host hardware, be it a games console or PC. Stock scripts and macros can be utilized - for example - to boost in-game aim assist to unprecedented levels, mitigate weapon recoil, and add support for mouse and keyboard in otherwise non-compatible games. Anti-cheat software suites have been unable to detect the extra layer of code, since it runs on an external device - until now.

CoD's security team elaborates on their cheat spotter: "Since our previous progress report, TeamRICOCHET has developed and tested a detection for third-party hardware devices that alter the Call of Duty gameplay experience. These devices act as a passthrough for controllers on PC and console and, when used improperly or maliciously, can provide a player with the ability to gain an unfair gameplay advantage, such as reducing or eliminating recoil. Testing is complete: This detection is deployed globally on all platforms. Users across PC or console who are detected to be using third-party hardware devices to impact the Modern Warfare II or Warzone 2.0 gameplay experience will first see a warning about the improper use of these devices..."

Doom Eternal has been review-bombed over the weekend, as disgruntled players took to Steam to show their thoughts on the the game's Update 1. The issue isn't in the update itself or it changing core gameplay functions; rather, it's based on the inclusion of Denuvo's Anti-cheat mechanism for the multiplayer component of the game, which is also running in the single-player campaign - considered to be the core of any Doom game.

Players are against the inclusion of Denuvo and its monitoring subroutines due to it having a a kernel-level service that monitors gameplay. Gamers are noting performance decreases, framerate drops, crashes, and deleted Saves after the game's latest update. Others are voicing their discontent at the fact that Denuvo has been added post-purchase of the game; players that might not choose to buy the game over that detail have already bought it, and refunds are apparently not being entertained. Doom Eternal's previous 90% user review score on Steam now stand at a measly 50%, which is absolutely undeserving of the game itself. Doom may be Eternal, but its community feedback sure isn't.

In what is likely to cause some hand wringing or chuckles depending on upon your personality, Microsoft's Windows 10 Insider Preview Slow Ring (beta versions of the OS) has not seen a new release in months. This is due to a common Anti-cheat software running amok and causing GSODs (replacement for BSODs in preview builds). The problem itself has existed for a few months and needs to be fixed by the creators of the software as noted by Chief of the Windows Insider program, Dona Sarkar, on twitter. Apparently, this isn't something Microsoft can fix due to how the software itself functions. Essentially the unspecified anti-cheat software runs in kernel mode and tampers with various aspects of the OS that it is not supposed to tamper with. While it is possible, the software is using allowed hooks in order to function. It is also possible that in the process it is damaging kernel data structures and code. This situation is likely to stir up debate on how effective anti-cheat software is considering it seldom seems to stop determined cheaters and as of now is causing the OS crash and is proving to be a thorn in Microsoft's side.

Still, this has more ramifications than just some system crashes or a software company that needs to edit some code. It directly results in Microsoft having to delay Preview releases. Since these Slow Ring builds can't be tested or validated. Pair that with the fact Microsoft's testing of Windows 10 builds is already considered lackluster with many bugs and issues going unresolved and you end up with a rather grim situation. After all, it was only a few short months ago that the October 2018 update was released after suffering numerous problems and delays. If issues like that continue, it seems the April 2019 update could be delayed as well. To avoid this and to get something done, Microsoft will be pushing out a Slow Ring build to systems that do not have the offending anti-cheat software. Better late than never but you would have thought that this solution would have been implemented sooner.