Apex Legends cheats using keyboard and mouse for aimbot-style advantage face crackdown

'Our stance on this? The short answer is: we don't condone it,' Respawn says about console players using keyboards

Gamers play a new version of Apex Legends video game at the EA PLAY event in California on 8 June, 2019 (AFP/Getty Images)

The creators of Apex Legends are developing ways to detect cheaters who are gaining an advantage by using a keyboard and mouse instead of a console gamepad.

Respawn Entertainment addressed the issue of people using a mouse and a keyboard to play the hugely popular video game on Xbox One and PS4 consoles, saying it wanted to prevent players from being able to do this.

"Our stance on this? The short answer is: we don't condone it," a Respawn community manager write in a Reddit post over the weekend.

"We are investigating ways to detect if players are doing it that we're testing internally. That's all we have to say on it for now but we'll revisit this and talk about progress with detection and how we'll address players using it in the near future."

Although it is not a form of cheating in the traditional sense, Apex Legends players complain the use of a mouse and keyboard give players a hugely unfair advantage when it comes to aiming weapons and moving around the game.

One of the most popular forms of cheating in Apex Legends involves downloading Aimbot and other software that automatically aims at opponents, making it easier to kill them and inflict damage.

Last week, Respawn revealed it employs a number of anti-cheating measures to ensure the integrity of its most popular title, one of which involves pitting cheaters against each other.

Anyone found to be cheating in Ranked mode will now be banned from entering battles with legitimate players and instead be forced to play other cheaters and spam accounts.

The game developers are using behaviour models created by machine learning algorithms in order to uncover players that might be cheating.

Reports from players who suspect opponents of using cheats also help to combat the issue, which has seen over 770,000 cheaters already banned.

"As we've said before, the war against cheaters will be ongoing and remains a high priority for us," Respawn wrote in a blog post.

"There will always be work to do, improvements to make, and new things to adapt to."