Escape From Tarkov Names And Shames 6,700 Cheaters Amid Community Issues

Hardcore online shooter Escape From Tarkov is well-known for its brutal consequences for death, and its developer Battlestate Games is taking a similar tack with those who get caught cheating. The studio recently released 6,700 names of banned cheaters in a public Google Sheet simply titled: “List of banned players.”

Battlestate told TechCrunch that the measure is intended to punish cheaters beyond the traditional banning, and to confirm to everyday players that their reports are being heard. “We want honest players to see the nicknames of cheaters to know that justice has been served and the cheater who killed them in a raid has been punished and banned,” spokesperson Dmitri Ogorodnikov told the outlet.

As TechCrunch notes in the report, this measure is unusual in the video game industry, with high-profile shooter publishers like Activision opting to report the number of cheaters purged in its ban waves, and nothing more. It appears that Battlestate has opted to pursue this practice in the past, as the above tweet mentions that the studio is “resuming” it. An unnamed employee at the anti-cheat department of a video game company told the outlet that they wish that their studio named and shamed the cheaters, too.

While Tarkov remains one of the most popular shooters in its space, it has suffered from major issues with cheating in recent months. You don’t have to look far on the game’s official subreddit to find fans who say that they’re quitting the game permanently due to these problems, with a number of players calling for Battlestate to shut the game down entirely to develop a more effective anti-cheat.