Apex Legends players continue to uninstall and downvote the battle royale game after the controversial Apex Legends Global Series hacking spree – even after Easy Anti Cheat refutes data leak issues.
Apex Legends’ recent hacking controversy made the game’s esports scene the talk of the town – for the wrong reasons. In the North American regional final of the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS), players experienced hacks and cheats, such as wall hacks and aimbots, from a third-party hacker remotely controlling the pro players’ accounts.
After the controversial tournament-wide hacking issues in the battle royale, many players resorted to uninstalling the game as a precautionary measure. Even casual players feared a wide data breach, given the kernel-level access of its anti-cheat software.
While the ALGS regional final remains postponed to a future date, Epic Games has already released a statement denying the vulnerability of the game’s anti-cheat software.
Moreover, Easy Anti Cheat denied having any remote code execution (RCE) issues with its system. The anti-cheat software developers also stated they are working with the Apex Legends dev team to investigate the issue further.
However, the clarification does not soothe the fear of Apex Legends players, as the battle royal continues to suffer sinking reviews on Steam. Only a day after the hacking reports, the popular first-person shooter game dived from mostly positive to mixed reviews.
Apex Legends hack issues remain a mystery to its player base
While many players fear a data leak or server-wide issue with Apex Legends safety, some experienced hackers and developers have their theory regarding the hacking incident.
On a livestream of Pirate Software’s Thor, a game developer, and hacker, he shares that the popular “wallhack” clip from the ALGS tournament looks like a “player who accidentally turned on the cheats they already have.”
While the streamer and developer do not suggest that GZ Genburten and ImperialHal knowingly installed cheats for the game, Thor details that these pro players’ “computer is compromised, at the very minimum.” Thor suggests that having only two pro players experience the cheats suggests a higher likelihood of isolated hack targeting rather than a system-wide issue.
Meanwhile, the source of the hacking spree remains a mystery, so many Apex Legends fans and players are still opting out of the game for the time being. And with streamers as big as xQc following the uninstall trend, Epic Games may see a sharp decline in players while the issue remains unsolved.