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ARC Raiders’ Cheating Problem Has No Easy Fix, Embark Engineer Says

Tom van Dijck said Embark is facing an $8 billion commercial cheat industry while processing up to 20 billion daily events across ARC Raiders and THE FINALS.

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An armored ARC Raiders character in a red jacket holds a shotgun against a dark purple background

Cheating remains one of the biggest problems facing ARC Raiders, and Embark Studios’ anti-cheat team says there is no quick solution waiting around the corner. During a recent Gamescom Dev talk, senior software engineer Tom van Dijck described a commercial cheat industry worth around $8 billion that keeps adapting as developers improve their defenses.

The problem affects ARC Raiders most visibly, but van Dijck also discussed cheating, stream sniping, exploits, and duplication issues in THE FINALS. Embark is dealing with a threat that includes hardware-based tools, AI-assisted cheats, and devices that can manipulate memory or player inputs for only a few dollars.

Embark is fighting more than individual cheaters

Van Dijck put the imbalance bluntly: “We’re just a small team, and even if we weren’t, we’re up against an $8 billion industry.” Each time one method is blocked, another can appear. He said Embark would need thousands of developers to counter every new approach, while cheat providers operate like a full commercial business built around defeating anti-cheat systems.

Community reaction has added another layer to the problem. Claims that ARC Raiders is full of cheaters spread quickly across social media, while streams featuring major creators can provide highly visible examples of stream sniping or suspicious behavior. Van Dijck said attempts to address those concerns can bring heavy backlash, especially when the studio cannot discuss every detection or account action in public.

Operating systems also limit what anti-cheat teams can do. Windows and Linux give software broad room to operate, while kernel-level protection can create security, stability, and privacy concerns for players. Van Dijck described kernel-level anti-cheat as invasive but said it remains necessary for the current threat environment. He also noted that some newer security work from Microsoft will not be back-ported to older versions of Windows.

To build a system tailored to its games, Embark partnered with Vaiiya on an in-house kernel-level anti-cheat solution. Van Dijck said the studio had previously relied on vendor tools such as Epic Games’ Easy Anti-Cheat, but those products did not meet Embark’s needs. His advice to other FPS developers was direct: buying and integrating a third-party product alone will not solve the problem.

Embark has also spent months addressing glitches and unauthorized enhancements in ARC Raiders. Its response included a limited Denuvo anti-cheat test that did not add Denuvo’s separate DRM system. The trial represents another layer in the studio’s effort to reduce cheating without applying that separate DRM technology.

ARC Raiders and THE FINALS generate billions of data points

Embark’s current approach relies heavily on player-behavior data. The studio collects up to 20 billion events every day across ARC Raiders and THE FINALS, including mouse movement, clicks, button presses, interactions with the environment, and activity connected to exploits such as duplication or movement through holes in the map.

Those systems let the team review how players move through matches, control recoil, manipulate their crosshair, and respond to the spaces around them. Most of the information is ordinary gameplay noise, but smaller patterns can help investigators identify behavior that deserves a closer look.

Van Dijck said Embark banned 15,000 people on the Monday of the talk, including players whose accounts were actioned while the presentation was taking place. The ban wave did not stop new cheaters or accounts from appearing, leaving the team in the same back-and-forth with providers that can keep producing new tools.

Detection is not a perfect science. Common applications such as OBS, Steam, and Overwolf can complicate the process, while legitimate accessibility features, third-party software, and add-ons can make it harder to separate genuine cheating from harmless activity.

The engineer offered a rough estimate that around 90% of players simply want to play normally, while making clear that Embark does not have a confirmed number ready to share. For the remaining cases, traditional detection methods are becoming less dependable as AI-assisted aimbots and hardware tools grow easier to obtain.

Embark’s data systems and new anti-cheat work may give the studio more ways to identify suspicious behavior, but van Dijck’s presentation made the limits clear: ARC Raiders is not facing a single exploit or one bad actor. It is dealing with a well-funded market that keeps changing whenever developers close another opening.

Have you run into cheating or stream sniping in ARC Raiders? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.

ARC Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure, set in a lethal future earth, ravaged by a mysterious mechanized threat known as ARC. Enlist as a Raider and scavenge the surface to thrive in a desolate world. But beware of the machines. Beware of Raiders preying on others.

ARC Raiders blends the tension from extraction shooters with atmospheric settings from the adventure genre. Lurking threats—from deadly machines to other Raiders—create a constant ebb and flow of intensity, where every moment is charged with the thrill of high stakes. Extract valuable loot and explore the unfolding mysteries of a vibrant, lethal world.

ARC Raiders supports seamless social play across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Play with your squad and thrive as a team, or rise in the ranks as a lone ranger.