Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn't even properly out yet and hackers are already carving their way through the game like a hot knife through butter. It seems Nintendo was well prepared for such invasions, however, with today's Version 1.1.0 patch already working towards getting rid of the issue.
In just a handful of days, hackers and dataminers managed to crack their way into the game, discovering that save data is encrypted - no doubt in an effort to prevent cheating going forward. Amazingly, a tool to decrypt this data has already been produced and shared online, causing a potentially frustrating dilemma for Nintendo.
Today's patch has reportedly added some new protection measures to fight against such tools being used by players, though. A console hacker going by the name of SciresM says that "you should expect bans if you go online with cheats/mods active", noting that there is now code which verifies the authenticity of your save data.
We doubt many of you reading this will have had any intentions to manipulate the game in such a way anyway, but if you were planning on playing around with the game's data, you might want to steer clear. For players wanting to experience the game as intended by its developers, anti-cheating measures such as this one could go a long way towards creating a safer environment.
If you missed the news earlier today, today's patch also confirms that you can't access seasonal events in the game by time travelling.
These people work mighty fast, huh?
[source nintendosoup.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 75
You can be banned from animal crossing?
"anti-cheating measures such as this one could go a long way towards creating a safer environment."
A safer environment from what exactly? Being spoiled? Didn't you guys already post an article about what data miners found out?
Who exactly is getting hurt here? I must be missing something.
its not even out yet!!!!
So sad. People are really just ripping themselves off by denying themselves the opportunity to discover and explore as intended
@lemonjellydude You should've expected that someone would be onto looking at saves(especially with the drama behind em) the minute they got their hands on a copy of the game. xD
Such is the wrath of Resetti!
I wonder if they're planning some sort of competitive modes, such as home design competitions or whatever.
Hackers, scammers, cheaters etc are the scum of the earth. I'm glad Nintendo is catching these scum, I hope they ban them for life.
People that hack will always find their ways anyhow.
The harder they (Nintendo) try, the harder they fail I mean I still see Splatoon 2 cheaters even while the game doesn't support cloud saves to prevent cheating (the irony)
As long as they don’t mess with others experiences It shouldn’t matter. Although...history has shown hackers don’t fn care about other gamers.
My question is why? Why are there always people that want to tear something up instead of enjoy the game? Weird folks.
"noting that there is now code which verifies the authenticity of your save data."
What the tweet says is that they're verifying the game's executable data in memory.
So, it's more like they can tell if you're running an edited/modded copy of the game, or have some cheats applied; as a potential example, changing all prices to 0 would definitely be caught by this.
Though, I wouldn't be surprised if they are also checking saves somehow.
@Danrenfroe2016 because human beings are vermin
The cheaters just want to show off by doing so.
Greediness, Hungry for Social status and Self Prestige are the factors of the cheating.
Edit:
If i got warning by Resetti by quit without saving, i want to yell at him "Do Shut up, old man! "
Never ever nag at me just because my will to quit without saving by intentionally.
Good, I hate it when people who hack their consoles try to ruin the experience for everyone else.
Youre all saying hackers are scum and that. But its their whole life to tear apart games. It's fun when youre hacking without intent to break the game for others. Some Hackers are actually good and important but these people hacking the game are actually helping Nintendo by making their security better. [Edit]> im not saying that its bad its being hacked but its not not good?
Hmm. I wonder if it’ll detect players who time traveled? Like if they have items that shouldn’t be available to them yet or something. If so, there’s going to be a lot of players, even here, who wind up with account bans!
@Kalmaro in the previous games, it was entirely possible for hackers to come into your town entirely soft lock or ruin your save file. They probably want to prevent that.
I don't understand why someone would hack a game like this, it's meant to be about relaxing and taking your time.
The only reason I understood why people did it in New Leaf was because Japan got loads of exclusive furniture we couldn't get...but we don't know if that exists yet.
At least enjoy the standard game for a few months guys!
@mesome713 wow wow wait son, scum of life, for a game? Nah there are worse things.
@Eel Can't you choose who can come into your town? I always played offline so it was never a problem.
@Kalmaro I saw that article, I’m not talking about events. I’m talking about seasonal stuff, like bugs and fish you don’t yet have access to because they’re in a different season. Could this check whether players have those things when they shouldn’t be able to yet?
@Kalmaro maybe you were born being already a smart adult, but many children and other less fortunate people can be easily tricked into letting people in.
I will never forget one time I had a sleepover with my friend and I played New Leaf on my his 3DS (as I didn't have one for myself yet) and it was like 5AM and I couldn't sleep. So I went to the island to help him out and some dude loaded me up with over 1,000,000 bells. I was freaking out so much I woke him up and I was like, "this random dude just gave me over a million bells!" Then he resonded with, "REALLY? cool." and went back to bed.
This story isn't relevant but I just wanted to share because it was such a great moment. But yeah, NO HACKERS.
@Eel That sounds like a personal problem, I hope that doesn't sound harsh. I think it should be up to the individual to protect themselves or their kids when it comes to games, especially animal crossing.
@ShadJV Yeah I ended up deleting that comment. I'm curious what happens too now. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
hopefully an update will be released of where Resetti appears at the airport telling users about the possibility of being banned from the network for if they try to cheat.
in the update, Resetti will just be sitting at a bench or whatever at the airport waiting for optional interaction. you can talk to him freely about the possibility of being banned.
you are only forced to talk to him at the airport when you are at risk of being banned or when he pops-up in front of you, telling you that you have been banned from the network. i wonder how long Nook or Resetti will yell at you for if you end up being banned from the network? or how they will do so.
just imagine Nook locking you in your tent (or house) during the lecture. or worse, him dragging you home so that he can start yelling at you about cheating.
@BrintaPap Of course among the earth live many scum.
@ShadJV
The check as described can only identify 'has the game's executable data been changed'. It's not about the save data at all.
Though we've been told there's going to be some limited way of restoring saves from the server, so ACNH is going to be uploading whole saves at some point in the future; which means they'd definitely be able to check for unreleased items then.
@Kalmaro yeah, I suppose we will. I’ve never time traveled in the series and don’t plan to anyways, so it doesn’t affect me, but I am curious what they’ll consider cheating. I have heard that messing with the date in Pokemon Sword and Shield to get shiny Gmax Pokemon can be considered cheating in their book (with players getting disqualified from online tournaments if they’re caught using those Pokémon, likely discoverable due to the date they were caught showing up as a future date), so I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility.
And honestly, while it doesn’t affect other players directly, I could see how it would be “bad”. I remember in past games being able to sell items to other players online, which creates some level of an in-game economy. Time traveling players can use that to collect rare items and sell them for less than the legitimate players who took a long time to collect the items, thereby destroying that economy and making it hard for legitimate players to enjoy that feature. It’s a minor thing, but I’m sure there’s players who enjoy the feature and time traveling could impact that, especially given the push for multiplayer in this one.
RIP Switch homebrew/modding/emulation scene, I guess. Also, apparently you guys are "the scum of Earth".
"Cheating at Animal Crossing" is my new punk band name.
Did anyone fill out the Pocket Camp survey? It asks why you are playing, 1 of the responses was to get rewards in ACNH. That surprised me, b/c I remember reading that there would be no rewards in ACNH just Boot Camp. Curious.
Nintendo is sure being vigilant in stopping people from hacking...a single player game... Cool? Way to be deontological, Big N.
This is EXACTLY what happens when you start limiting stuff to try and stop cheaters (in a non-competitive game no less!). You just provoke hackers to work double time.
They always one step ahead from most of any system, glad Nintendo can protect this one.
Taken from another post at another message board:
"I'm not sure about this one, but in previous titles, people were making seeds of buildings or other unmovable objects. This turned into people maliciously entering someone's town under the guise of a trade and dropping them in unsavory places, breaking the other persons town."
Wow. Knowing trolls, this sounds believable.
@ShadJV just dont time travel and play the game as intended! Problem solved! Can't say I didn't use time exploits in previous AC games, but I won't be doing so in this game.
Like iterate to those saying hacking is something to do Read the EULA and come to talk those whom abide by this.
Who honestly cares about cheating on animal crossing?
It's important that the limitation of 1 console 1 island is surpassed
@Kalmaro Dupped items, scam messages, potentially introducing bugs which crash people's games. The game is a social internet connected game, it will affect people loads.
Why in the world would you say "cheaters should be banned" when talking about something which is not a competitive online game? What impact do these people have on your own enjoyment of the game??
@SwitchplayerJohn Aren't you able to determine who comes into your game? If not then an easy solution is to let people choose who comes and and filter out people themselves, not punish everybody.
Not everyone plays online.
Who friggin' cares??
No one can come to my island except my lil girl if we can do loccal Co-Op without NSO.
I have nothing against hacker(s), they challenge the companies and system. Keep them on toes. But those who wait around and mooched off for free game like those on CrackWatch ( many of those actually can afford games. But they do it "just because" ) are those I detest.
Another kind of scum as of now are those hoarding essential goods like it's the end of the world. And Scammers too.
I honestly loved seeing what the hackers created by visiting their towns in the dream suite. Also it’s a mostly single player game, I don’t see the point except for when you did the island tours with strangers and they’d block the door with rocks or something. Relax a bit, Nintendo.
It's pretty simple: play the game as intended and you won't have an issue. I don't care what your justification is. It still isn't right to do
@Jayvir No one is saying nintendo doesn't have the right to tell gamers how to play their game. Rather, we have issue on their reasoning for the rules in the first place.
I don’t see the point in cheating because it ruins the game for them. Back in the day I used to use cheats in games but going back and playing them legitimately is a more enjoyable and rewarding experience,
Personally I’d rather play the game as it was intended
@Yorumi,
Well put, if they want to hack a game so what, it won't make a difference to my enjoyment of this new game, and I can't see why people get so upset about it, just like they get upset if somebody gets a game early.
I kinda hate this attitude in many company's today that we really don't own our devices and the data on the them, and that making alterations to either is verboten.
@Yorumi I would argue that they have the right to tell people how to play a game that they made. I wouldn't say that it means we have to listen to them though.
It also doesn't mean that their reasoning is logical.
The problem I have with hackers and cheaters is that they force companies like Nintendo and others to disable cloud-save services as they unsuccessfully try to prevent hacking and cheating. Games that need cloud-save services, like Pokemon, Splatoon, YuGiOh and now AC are not getting them, and that ends up affecting all players.
Hopefully they can ban them so they cannot use the same console afterwards.
@Danrenfroe2016 Welcome to Earth. Enjoy your stay.
@Mountain_Man Yeah, I think it should only matter if you're going online and affecting other player's experience. For instance, I don't think anyone cares if you use a trainer for a local PC game.
SciresM has not been sued by Nintendo yet?
PEOPLE!
THIS IS THE REASON WHY THERE ARE NO SAVE BACKUPS FOR THIS GAME.
Sorry for the caps, but it had to be done.
@Mountain_Man You don't own the game. You own a license to play the game. This has always been the case. Changing something of a licensed game, without prior approval of the owner (Nintendo in this case) is ILLEGAL. Then using this online SHOULD get you banned.
@Yorumi Just look at cases like Nintendo vs R4DS lawsuits. You own a license. At least in Europe. And changing your game is protected under DMCA in the US. So yeah.. you are 100% wrong.
Where cheat devices only alter active memory (to give unlimited lives etc), altering a save file (breaking an encryption, changing values, re encrypting) all fall under copyright. And in both the EU and US (DMCA) this is prohibited.
@Yorumi Not if you have to break an encryption.
I never understood why people would want to cheat on what is essentially a largely(though not entirely) single-player experience.. cheating yourself?
Thank you Nintendo for always banning the cheaters in online games. Now I feel like getting good value out of my online membership.
It would be a shame for this masterpiece to be tainted by cheaters, especially when a) most people still wait for the release and b) Nintendo made hacks obsolete because in New Horizons you have the freedom to customize and change everything you ever wanted! And you know, Animal Crossing hackers can make your game unplayable to the point that you have to delete everything and start from scratch.
When Nintendo detects a hacked island, they should award those cheaters an hour long scolding from Mr. Resetti, a year ban for being so disrespectful (and a potential danger for the whole AC online community), and remotely delete the save file. Everyone else should get a medal from Mr. Resetti for fair play.
@sanderev I find the licensing agreement argument specious at best. Nintendo can rightfully prevent you from making copies and selling the software, or modifying it in a way that harms other people's experience (such as hacking in online play), but what you do with your own system and the data on it is (or should) your own affair.
Just send these people viruses to brick their systems and be done with it.
Cheating is the only way to go with those boring , grindy games .
Isn't cheating in the way described in the article the equivalent of deliberately reading the plot for a movie you're about to watch and spoiling the surprises for yourself? Or someone else seeing the movie and then spelling it out for you in detail at least. That practice has been around a lot longer than cheating in video games and is the same kind of thing.
@mesome713 That's a very black and white perspective you have about hackers in specific. Hackers have done a lot of good, it's just that there are hackers that do bad stuff as well. Generalizing hackers as people who only do harm is honestly harmful in itself.
I've hacked previous entries to edit my town to my liking, but but since NH lets me do that anyway, I don't really see any reason to hack this one.
@mesome713 I'm amazed comments like this are recieved well instead of being ridiculed. Hacking a game, especially a single player game, should be your right as a consumer. You all have this very childish idea that hacking is cheating.
Hacking is literally altering any data at all. Is there a character that didn't return in the new game? If you mod the game to add them back in, that's a hack. Is your copy completely broken because of some random software issue? If you fix it, that's hacking.
You know the entire Skyrim modding page? That's all technically hacking. Some games are only popular because of this hackability. This is ignoring the fact that it's completely ridiculous to refer to friggin data miners and modders as "the scum of the Earth" when they're some of the most important cornerstones of the gaming community.
@SmileMan64 Aside from griefing, Nintendo is worried that hackers will destabilize the multiplayer economy by allowing for rampant Bell inflation and making rare materials absurdly abundant.
@mesome713 I can think of many things more scummy than hackers. Animal Crossing is a single-player game, and people that homebrew their switch likely wouldn't play online anyway, as most use 90DNS, which disables them from connecting to Nintendo's servers, or play in airplane mode. Also for hacking, it isn't really necessary in the sense of bells because of the item duplication glitch in version 1.1.0.
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@mesome713
Hacking is only a problem in Online community games such as MOBAs, MMORPG, and similiar where the gameplay takes place online. If someone wants to cheat an offline game, that's their business.
Even then, if you think someone cheating in a video game is the "scum of the Earth" wait till you wake up and see the daily occurrences going on in the shadows which you choose not to see.
Here, let me get you started: https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/22/horrific-snapchat-video-shows-teen-torture-terrified-dachshund-puppy-friends-cackle-12103897/
Compared that that, someone cheating in an offline game is absolutely nothing.
@SyFyTy
Cheats (hacks & glitches) add all kinds of fun to games. Not everyone enjoys the same type of experience. Here is an example of having fun with cheats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBVhY8ywUxI
The only time cheats should be strictly prohibited is in games that take place entirely online as player to player contact is not optional.
Grand Theft Auto already made the perfect solution to the problem, however, which is a "Cheater's Lounge". Those who use cheats online are banned from the official online servers (not the game itself) but are given access to a server where everyone is a cheater.
@Yorumi
"Heck Nintendo fired the first shot in the 80's against the game genie and lost"
That is because Nintendo is extremely sue happy and have proven again and again that they will sue every chance they get. They sue fan made games, they attempted to sue the creator of a cheat program, they sue those who emulate ROMs of games they stopped selling for a long time, Nintendo even stooped as low as suing Blockbuster because they hated the idea of players renting games.
What do you expect, Nintendo is as they have always been, a company of tyrants who wishes to use the law as a weapon. Their customers mean absolute nothing to them other than being their source of cash.
@mesome713 This may be extremely old but sure online only games. But NEVER ever include Single Player Games in the mix because that only makes YOU a target for the rest of us who cheat only on Single Player Games regardless of platform.
Because if you have a problem with cheating in a SP Game then you my good sure have a mental issue.
@havoc777 Nintendo does not control the Government or Congress. Nintendo Does NOT Own the US they cannot take control of a entire US under there bidding that's only gonna cause war crimes. I don't care if they got all the money in the world, They cannot and will never be able to take full control of the US Goverment or Agencies.
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