Hero image: Apex Legends. Image: Electronic Arts
Respawn has switched on new controller cheating detections across Apex Legends, and console players are not exempt. The studio’s anti-cheat team announced the change in a post on Friday morning, Australian time.
The detections are live in all game modes, on all platforms. Players found using “unauthorized controller hardware, modifications, or software to gain an unfair gameplay advantage” face enforcement, and the post names permanent bans among the penalties.
The team says it has spent the past several months testing and validating the new tools. They have now reached the level of validation it needs for full implementation.
The platform list is spelled out — PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch 2 — and the post is blunt about it: “Playing on console does not provide an exemption from detection or enforcement.”
It also carries a direct warning to anyone using such a device. Respawn tells them to stop immediately, and not to assume the tools are undetectable or that their platform will protect them.
The post doesn’t name any specific device or modification, and it gives no figure for how many accounts have been actioned so far.
Respawn calls the change an important step against controller-based cheating, but “not the end of these efforts,” and says detection will keep changing as cheating methods do.
The notice follows the studio’s 10 November update, which changed how Crypto’s drone works. Apex Legends was eighth on Steam’s most-played chart on Friday.
Apex Legends is free to play on Steam.
Source: Respawn – An Update from the Anti-Cheat Team, 11/12/2026 (Steam)