Popular battle royale game Apex Legends has had its fair share of controversy when it comes to cheating. Supposedly, Apex Legends cheaters were cleaning up, with cheats easily available via several websites being widely used by both streamers and ordinary players alike.

Well, Respawn looks to be treating the issue with extreme severity. Cheaters on an Apex Legends cheating forum have been complaining of having their hardware banned from playing the game, with each new account created on the same PC locked within minutes. Some of the usual hardware workarounds for combating this don't seem to be working, suggesting a scorched-earth approach on the part of EA and Respawn. There are still ways around this for the dedicated cheater, but it's getting much, much harder to cheat in Apex Legends.

This has been a widespread and grave issue within the Apex Legends community. There have been instances of cheaters being caught in tournaments for the game, including (according to a Reddit post) recent tournament finalists Team Kursk and Team Barktome. Given that prize pools can reach upwards of $200,000 for Apex Legends tournaments it might not be surprising that cheating happens, especially if Respawn and EA's architecture for combating cheating hasn't been up to scratch. Still, it's good to know that something is being done to level the playing field.

The trouble is that since Apex Legends is a free-to-play game, the stakes for being caught and exposed as a cheater aren't particularly high. Before hardware banning was introduced, players could simply create new accounts, tinker with a few things under their PC's hood, and continue playing the game. Multiplayer competitive games are incredibly vulnerable to cheats and hacks, especially those with a degree of popularity and prestige in the gaming community like Apex Legends. Epic Games' Fortnite has encountered similar problems in the past, and although the company has anti-cheat measures in place, some programs and methods will inevitably slip through the cracks.

Respawn and EA are likely hoping that taking such drastic measures to combat cheating will deter people from pursuing this avenue in the future. Given that cheats are often fairly expensive, it's not hard to see that being the case, but time will tell.

Do you have any personal experiences with Apex Legends cheaters? Let us know in the comments below!