With the open beta phase of Battlefield 6 now concluded and the eagerly anticipated release date set for October 10, developer DICE is diligently preparing the shooter for its launch across both PC and console platforms. However, it is the PC experience that has drawn particular scrutiny regarding EA’s anti-cheat measures, leading to some players encountering unexpected hurdles.
Challenges of Secure Boot
During the open beta, many PC gamers were greeted with an on-screen notification stating, ‘Secure Boot is not enabled.’ This requirement has become a non-negotiable for those wishing to engage with Battlefield 6 on PC. Unfortunately, enabling Secure Boot has proven to be a daunting task for some users.
Activating Secure Boot necessitates delving into the BIOS settings of a computer—an area that may not be familiar to all PC gamers. This process involves ensuring that features such as TPM 2.0 are activated, as well as confirming that the Windows disk is formatted as GPT rather than MBR. For many, these technical specifications can be overwhelming, and in some cases, users may find themselves unable to enable Secure Boot at all, prompting them to seek assistance from their hardware manufacturers.
While seasoned PC gamers may navigate these requirements with relative ease, the complexity can be intimidating for less experienced players. DICE has acknowledged that these stringent anti-cheat measures could inadvertently exclude some individuals from participating in Battlefield 6.
Christian Buhl, the technical director for Battlefield 6, expressed his regret over this situation in an interview with Eurogamer. “The fact is I wish we didn’t have to do things like Secure Boot,” he stated. “It does prevent some players from playing the game. Some people’s PCs can’t handle it and they can’t play; that really sucks. I wish everyone could play the game with low friction and not have to do these sorts of things.”
Despite these challenges, Buhl remains optimistic about the effectiveness of Secure Boot and similar measures, describing them as “some of the strongest tools in our toolbox to stop cheating.” He noted, “We were pretty happy with how the anti-cheat performed. Obviously, I’ll say we can never be perfect; anti-cheat is always a cat-and-mouse game where we’re constantly going back and forth and keeping on top of what the cheaters are doing. But from the beginning, this was something we put a high priority on, so when we launch this game, we have a really strong anti-cheat program in place.”
Buhl further elaborated, “Again, nothing makes cheating impossible, but enabling Secure Boot and having kernel-level access makes it so much harder to cheat and so much easier for us to find and stop cheating.”
The issue of cheating in competitive multiplayer games is a persistent challenge for publishers. For instance, Activision has invested millions in efforts to combat cheating in its Call of Duty franchise, employing similar measures like TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot for Black Ops 7 on PC.
While the requirement for Secure Boot has posed difficulties for some, the open beta for Battlefield 6 attracted a substantial player base on Steam. As the launch approaches, it will be intriguing to observe how these dynamics unfold in the full release.
