? new survey from Irdeto shows that more than half (60%) of gamers have had their multiplayer gaming experience negatively impacted by other players cheating on multiple occasions. The Irdeto Global Gaming Survey of 9,436 consumers also indicates that these online gamers will purchase less in-game content and even stop playing the game in question, if they feel that other players are gaining an unfair advantage through cheating.
Of the consumers surveyed online across six different countries, including China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, UK and US, 77% of online gamers are likely to stop playing a multiplayer game online if they think other players are cheating and 48% of online gamers are likely to buy less in-game content as a result. This suggests a massive impact on the revenues of game publishers if they do not adequately protect multiplayer online games from cheating.
Surprisingly, the survey also found that only 12% of online gamers who play multiplayer games have never had their multiplayer gaming experience negatively impacted by other players cheating, while 8% said that it was always impacted. Millennials are most aware of the impact of cheating, with 12% of 18 to 24-year-olds globally stating their experience is always negatively impacted and only 7% of this age group who play multiplayer games stating that they are never impacted by other players cheating. It is therefore unsurprising that the survey also found that 76% of online gamers felt that it was important that multiplayer games online are secured against other players gaining an unfair advantage through cheating.
Reinhard Blaukovitsch, Managing Director of Denuvo at Irdeto, said:
“These results clearly indicate that cheating in multiplayer online games is a growing problem. Furthermore, the global nature of these games means that it doesn’t matter where the cheating is taking place, as it has the potential to negatively impact other gamers around the world, and this sets a big challenge for game publishers.”
Elmar Fischer, Sales Director of Denuvo at Irdeto added:
“If cheaters are allowed to prosper, the impact on other players can subsequently lead to lower game traffic and shrinking revenues. It is therefore crucial for game publishers to secure their games against cheating to ensure a great experience for gamers all over the world who want to play by the rules.”
Despite the negative experiences that many gamers are having and the subsequent impact on the industry, cheating is still rife in multiplayer online games. The survey indicates that some gamers place their own experience and desire to win above all else. While 57% of gamers globally stated they have never used third-party tools to cheat in multiplayer games online, a substantial proportion of 12% admitted to being cheaters: regularly taking action including modifying game files and/or using hardware tools to cheat. This suggests that there appears to be an ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ attitude among some gamers who will take action to fight back against cheaters, even if that means cheating themselves.
Rory O’Connor, Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity Services at Irdeto, concluded:
“Gamers across the globe clearly feel that they are not being sufficiently protected against cheating and malicious plugins. This leads to a vicious cycle where one in eight gamers feel forced to cheat. Game publishers should implement security strategies which prevent hackers in multiplayer games from manipulating and distorting data or code to gain an advantage over other gamers or bypass in-game transactions. The brands that put the protections in place that gamers want will surely prevail in an increasingly competitive online gaming sector.”
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Sad people enjoy cheating in a multiplayer game.. It’s pretty pathetic if you feel satisfied by cheating to do better. Lame.
“77% of online gamers are likely to stop playing a multiplayer game online if they think other players are cheating and 48% of online gamers are likely to buy less in-game content as a result.”
REMINDER THAT SELF REPORTS ARE NOT SCIENTIFICALLY VALID
77% of the sample SAY they might stop playing a game and they SAY they might buy less stuff in the game. The logic a person uses in the moment of being asked these questions and the logic people use making their gaming and purchasing decisions are two different things.
“Managing Director of Denuvo”
“Sales Director of Denuvo”
So this whole article is literally an AD for a company who paid for the survey, yet you are presenting it as if it were a journalistic article. You’re not doing any reflection on the motives of this company whose representatives you’re quoting, not one line that maybe all of this should be taken with a grain of salt since it comes down to a company pushing a product (Denuvo anti-cheat features or a separate anti-cheat program maybe). Considering that Denuvo is a topic you cover seemingly every month you should start feigning some journalistic integrity asap. Bad look.
“While 57% of gamers globally stated they have never used third-party tools to cheat in multiplayer games online, a substantial proportion of 12% admitted to being cheaters”
What about the remaining 31%? Do they not remember? Did they tick a “not sure” option on the poll? Sounds like 31% didn’t even understand the terminology (“third party tools”, “multiplayer”) or fill out the whole thing.
Also 9.5k people asked?, it just seems so damn paltry in number compared to the millions upon millions of gamers out there.
9.5k are a decent number. I’d be more concerned with how they found those 9.5k people. In the PDF they list the countries (Russia not included, pretty big demographic, also lots of cheaters) but they don’t say how they contacted these people and potentially what the incentive to participate was. Even if all participants told the objective truth about themselves you’d still end up measuring a specific type of person, not the global gaming population.
Flawless objective measurements exist: Game purchases, ingame purchases, stream viewers, daily players etc. are all objective data on how gamers actually act at large. If games with terrible cheat protection keep selling then what does that tell you about the average player’s tolerance for cheat-infested games?
Yeah, their numbers sounded way off. Then once I saw it was from Denuvo’s devs it made sense.
” Considering that Denuvo is a topic you cover seemingly every month you should start feigning some journalistic integrity asap. Bad look.”
Works both ways really if he took shots at irdeto for owning denuvo, then he could be accused of being biased. By presenting the information as is, the audience of this site, who is not supid like the damn normies on pc gamer and ign, cant take apart everything irdeto says.
Cheating in-game is garbage. The TRUE gamers know the only cheating that is approved by community is…
Cheating on your total amount of calories a day.
WHERE ARE MY CHIPS AND CHOCOLATE CAKE AND ICE CREAM AND ALL THAT ?
You killed me faster then I killed you cheater!
I prefer single player games and really I consider myself fortunate in that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people post about their frustration with cheaters. A few of which I knew to be decent players so they weren’t just b*tching because they weren’t good at the game and getting killed a lot.
The turn off to me about most multiplayer is the not knowing. Am I getting killed because I’m not trying hard enough or am I getting killed by a cheater? Does my stats and rank mean anything at all?
I’m under the impression that cheating is pretty prevalent in multiplayer. Often times you see a Developer doing mass bans for cheating.
From my experience anytime there are stats and rankings involved there will be cheaters. Even back in the late 90s and early 2000s when I played checkers and chess on Yahoo there were people using programs to cheat there too in order to get high rankings. Cheating at checkers for gods sake! It’s sad what some will do.
“The turn off to me about most multiplayer is the not knowing. Am I getting killed because I’m not trying hard enough or am I getting killed by a cheater? Does my stats and rank mean anything at all?”
Or lag? Whats the point really? Heck i rather have fun alone than getting angry at so many things 24/7 and you dont even know whats the problem.
nice denuvo AD
isnt irdeto south african? I mean that doesnt exactly fill me with confidence they probably scamming us.
“These results clearly indicate that cheating in multiplayer online games is a growing problem.”
You know what a bigger problem is? Bull**** DRM like this.
Also, the volume of people surveyed and the conditions, don’t seem doctored at all. Nope, not at all.
Top this off with the worst cheating method out there, P2W, and really, that alone makes your entire survey redundant.
Like stuff like this matters. Battlefield V will have cheaters day 1 of the beta just like in the beta’s for BF4, Hardline, Battlefront 1 and 2 and BF1. The cycle of no skill scumbags will never end online.