Bungie, of eternal Halo fame and developer of Destiny 2, says there's been a sharp rise in cheating in their multiplayer title this year, and they aren't having any of it. Few developers historically take cheating as seriously as Bungie does, but it's going to be quite an uphill battle.
Ask any PC player joining the mass exodus of that platform's Destiny 2 playerbase why they've opted to abandon the game, and the answer will probably be one word, two syllables: cheaters. Since adopting a free-to-start model, Bungie unintentionally opened a Pandora's box of cheating among PC players less invested in the game than paying series fans. Console players have been lucky to avoid that fate despite other versions of the game also being free-to-start, but the problem is unfortunately very real on PC. Normally, players use their programming expertise to datamine Destiny 2 for approaching in-universe events and to stay on top of incoming seasonal goodies, but others make, sell, and buy cheats out of a callous sense of greed and an unhealthy need to win PvP bouts at any cost.
In a comprehensive news update on Bungie.net, studio production director Justin Truman acknowledged the issues plaguing Destiny 2, "Trials [of Osiris], the rise in cheaters, our new Seasonal model, the balance between rewards you earn vs. items you buy." Saving the messy monetization stuff another time, he turned it over to engineering director David Aldridge, who grimly reports that cheating is "up roughly 50 percent since January." Laying out the worst problems and their solutions (if existent or discussable without tipping of cheaters), he seems confident in Bungie's discreet new "plans to address" aimbots and wallhacks on PC, though a little less certain - but still transparent - about memory exploits that grant infinite ammo, health, etc. due to their servers' lack of "complete authority over the game simulation."
Really, only time will tell if Bungie's measured response to Destiny 2's sharp influx of cheating players will be effective enough to keep current players playing and bring fed-up ones back. However, it's virtually impossible to eliminate all cheating in an online game, especially on a platform as robust and open-ended as PC. With this in mind, the likely result will be what Aldridge essentially implies: some forms of cheating may be greatly reduced, while some of the worst, most game-breaking stuff might be here to stay. The good news is that events like the PvE-focused Guardian Games will remain more or less unaffected by cheating on all platforms, but malicious cheats used to gain advantages in competitive modes like Trials of Osiris might not be going anywhere anytime soon.
For the sake of everyone but the cheaters, it can be hoped that Bungie is able to flex its ban hammer with the precision needed to address all of the most game-ruining forms of cheating in Destiny 2. In all likelihood, though, some annoying cheaters will get theirs, but others will persist in getting away with their selfish antics all up until they jump ship to Destiny 3.
Source: Bungie