Riot Accused of Invasive Always-Running Valorant Anti-Cheat
Riot Games' online multiplayer game Valorant is already stunningly popular going off of its Twitch viewership. That's despite the game being in closed beta, with a summer launch still months away. Yet some Valorant players have noticed something about the game that's raising some red flags. Players have noted that Valorant installs a system driver that loads each time someone turns on their computer and stays on permanently. The driver, which Riot insists is purely for anti-cheat measures, is being called too invasive by some.
The driver's name is vgk.sys and Riot has confirmed that the Valorant file is run at system startup. It remains loaded while the PC is on, but isn't constantly active. Riot doesn't clarify everything that the driver does while players' PCs are on, but does generally describe its purpose. The driver is intended to track and prevent cheating in Valorant. It does this by both ensuring that a PC's system components haven't been modified prior to Valorant launching and that a cheat doesn't tamper with anti-cheat software in Valorant as the game loads.
Riot's decision is that this driver needs to be on fulltime in order for Valorant to be playable. Riot's made the driver entirely uninstallable and it can be disabled manually. If the player chooses to do this, though, Valorant won't start.
While that may sound intimidating, Riot assures fans it has done its due diligence. Riot says several external research teams have reviewed the driver for flaws. It's also designed to do as little as possible, letting the in-game anti-cheat do the bulk of the work. It doesn't scan anything unless Valorant is running and it's designed to take up as few system resources as possible.
That said, while Riot says the driver is key to anti-cheat efforts in Valorant, that it's secure and out of the way, that doesn't change that it is there all the time. Valorant players will have to extend their trust to Riot to play Valorant. That may or may not be a deal-breaker for potential players.
Keep in mind that Valorant remains in closed beta and things are subject to change. Riot says that right now it believes the "run-at-boot time driver" is the right choice, but if players make clear they aren't having a good experience due to the driver then Riot will remove it and try something else. For the time being, though, there may be some further controversy.
Valorant is available now on PC.
Source: Reddit
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