Gray Zone Warfare Disables Family Sharing to Combat Cheaters

Gray Zone Warfare is in Early Access on Steam, and as this means the game is still in active development there have been a number of patches, hot fixes, and changes to the game carried out by the developers at MADFINGER Games, and while the majority of these are implemented to improve the overall performance and optimization of the game, the newest change addresses something different altogether. Unfortunately, updates aren’t the only thing that have come in multiples in Gray Zone Warfare‘s Early Access period since it began on April 30th earlier this year – as is typical with gaming communities for games such as this, certain players are discovering the ways they can take advantage of the game with cheats.

One of the more problematic cheats is one where players who have already been banned for any number of reasons are using the Steam Family Sharing feature to create new accounts and link them to their family library, therefore finding a way to continue playing the game despite their ban. For this reason, MADFINGER Games has elected to turn off the feature for the time being, which they announced through the Gray Zone Warfare X (formerly Twitter) official account with a post that reads:

“We have identified that cheaters are exploiting the Steam Family Sharing feature to evade bans by creating new accounts and linking them to their family library. To maintain the integrity of our game and ensure a fair experience for all players, we have decided to temporarily disable the Family Sharing feature until further notice,” the post reads. “We understand that this feature is important to our players, and we are actively working on making necessary adjustments on our end to prevent misuse. Thanks for hanging in there with us. We’re committed to creating a fair and fun gaming environment for everyone. We’ll keep you updated on when we can re-enable the feature.”

A player in the replies pointed out that the Steam Family Sharing feature cheat isn’t the only one cheaters are using as well, to which the Gray Zone Warfare account replied to confirm their awareness by saying “Oh, we know[.]” While the account did not further comment on additional cheat methods, this response from them would indicate the developers at MADFINGER Games are working on ways to combat the cheats to make circumstances far for everyone playing by the rules.