Battlefield 6‘s PC version has a somewhat controversial feature known as Secure Boot and we spoke to a developer who was able to shed some light about its inclusion. Cheating in video games is as prominent as ever. For starters, a lot of the biggest games are free-to-play, so even if someone is banned, there are ways for them to get back in without having to buy a whole new copy. The rise of crossplay has also meant that console players have started to see severe cheating cases bleeding into their games as well. It’s quite a problem and one that has hurt some of the biggest franchises out there.
With that said, Battlefield 6 is trying its best to prepare itself against cheaters. Not only does EA have its own anti-cheat service known as Javelin, but it also has another measure known as Secure Boot. This is a Windows security feature that essentially allows a company like EA to detect if you are using any sort of unsavory software and allows them to take action before they even get into a match. Of course, nothing is perfect so there were some people cheating in the Battlefield 6 beta, but it did prevent it from being unreasonable. The only downside is that if your computer doesn’t have it on by default, it can be a real pain to set up and it was a major issue for a lot of people during the Battlefield 6 beta.
Battlefield 6 Developer Explains Why Secure Boot Is Necessary
I spoke with Christian Buhl, Studio Technical Director at Ripple Effect which is part of Battlefield Studios, and we talked about why the team chose to use Secure Boot for Battlefield 6. Buhl noted that he actually wishes it was easier to use, but the decision boiled down to trying to create the most fair game possible, even at the cost of inconveniencing some players to a degree.
“For some people, it is a barrier to entry for the game and I wish that it didn’t have to be,” said Buhl. “I wish we didn’t have to turn on Secure Boot. But again, a couple of years ago, we had a lot of deep, deep discussions about anti-cheat and what we wanted our approach to be. We had discussions about how much do we want to focus on friction versus fairness? And the fact is, the more anti-cheat you do, the more friction you add, but hopefully the more fairness you add.”
Buhl went on to note that although Secure Boot isn’t complete Kryptonite to cheaters, it is the best option for what they want to do with Battlefield 6‘s anti-cheat measures.
“We made a pretty deliberate decision that we wanted to focus way more heavily on fairness,” he continued. “If it’s super easy to play the game, but you get in and everybody’s clearly cheating, that’s not fun. You’re not going to have fun and you’re probably going to stop playing the game. So, it’s unfortunate that there has to be some of that friction, but we did make that decision deliberately. Secure Boot is a super powerful tool for us to help prevent cheating. It’s not foolproof. There is no foolproof anti-cheat solution. There are always going to be cheaters, but this does really help us in combating cheating and making the game fair for our players. And so that was the decision is we looked at our options. We said, this is going to have a huge impact on fairness, it’s going to add friction.
With that said, Buhl has stated they’re also trying to make it easier for players to use. They won’t be changing how Secure Boot is implemented in Battlefield 6, but the team is putting together walkthroughs and FAQs so players can better understand it when the game finally launches. Ultimately though, Buhl believes that the developer was put in a box by cheaters and Secure Boot was a necessity.
“We’re going to do everything we can to put FAQs out there and help people walk through turning it on,” Buhl noted. “The fact is there are some people who won’t be able to play because of it, and that sucks. I hate the cheaters for making us do this, but I think it’s going to be better for everyone else to have fewer cheaters and more fairness in the game.”
Just a day after conducting this interview, Activision confirmed it would also be using Secure Boot for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Despite the frustrations it may give player, it may also be needed to keep the peace in-game going forward. Only time will tell if it makes a significant difference in the long term for these games, though.
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