EA Is Debuting A New Kernel-Level Anti-Cheat System With FIFA 23

Cheating is something that developers and publishers have been trying to combat since the dawn of gaming. There are various measures in place in modern games, like Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC), BattlEye, and Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC), and their efficacy is always up for debate. EA has decided that the current measures are not enough and has made its own anti-cheat system which is making its debut with the release of FIFA 23.

Named EA AntiCheat (EAAC), EA’s focus is to create “a safe and fair experience” for all players. While arguably the most intrusive measure to date, with EAAC going down to kernel-level protection, it is not for lack of reasoning. The sad truth is that kernel-level protections are becoming more and more of a necessity in the PC gaming landscape.

Claiming that EAAC “will only look at what it needs for anti-cheat purposes”, EA hopes that its detailed blog post regarding the new anti-cheat system will help dispel the concerns regarding the depth of EAAC’s monitoring. Here are the cliffnotes:

• Should not have any impact on stability or performance
• Will constantly be looked at to ensure it does not enable any vulnerabilities
• EAAC will be uninstalled when no games that use it are installed
• Only runs when an EAAC game is running
• Will only be implemented in games that necessitate anti-cheat measures (competitive multiplayer)

While FIFA 23 is the first game to implement EAAC, EA’s other competitive multiplayer games should follow suit in time, and EA isn’t even the first publisher to introduce a kernel-level anti-cheat program. Activision was the first to introduce an anti-cheat program of this ilk with the Ricochet anti-cheat software.

What are your thoughts on this new anti-cheat program? Does this announcement change what platform you will play FIFA 23 on? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.