Battlefield 3: EA overturning "faulty" PunkBuster bans

By Robert Purchese Published 30 January, 2012

Will "improve protection" against "future fake bans".

EA has begun rectifying around 150 "faulty bans" issued to legitimate, law-abiding Battlefield 3 gamers on PC.

Hackers handed out these bans by exploiting third-party anti-cheat software PunkBuster. Their mission was to expose not only PunkBuster's weaknesses, but also those of GGC and PBBans - more anti-cheater server software that live-tracks bans among other things.

"Together with the third-party service providers, we have taken steps to remove the faulty bans and improve the protection against future fake bans," wrote Kusa_EA on the Battlelog forum.

ban

How did EA know?!

"We have determined that the root cause resulting in the server bans is not directly related to Battlefield 3, but rather related to select third-party services which server owners can use in conjunction with PunkBuster to protect their servers.

"If you are able to log in to Battlelog," Kusa_EA continued, "your account has not been banned by EA or DICE so there is no need to contact customer support."

The post was updated when more reports of the issue still affecting gamers came tumbling in.

"As seen in the comments," Kusa_EA added, "we are receiving reports that this issue is still affecting some players.

"We are continuing to investigate what may be causing this issue with some servers.

"If you are still experiencing problems please try joining other PunkBuster enabled servers - only a subset of servers are affected."

EA clarified that this issue did not and does not affect gamers on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Battlefield 3 looks lifelike on PC.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 4 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mccappind #1 4 months ago

    Will "improve protection" against "future fake bans".
    How if it's an issue with punk buster?

  • TheEarlOfZinger #2 4 months ago

    Any more expansion packs coming out for BF3?

    It's died a death for me after 30 hours - to be honest, bored.

  • gregski #3 4 months ago

    So, EA are not able to deal with real hackers, but now have to also deal with people who have been falsely accused of being hackers by the real hackers :)

  • Hellion83 #4 4 months ago

    Post deleted at 20:12:17 01-02-2012

  • mccappind #5 4 months ago

    "If you are able to log in to Battlelog your account has not been banned by EA or DICE so there is no need to contact customer support
    It's not our fault so please don't contact us. Haha! I'd want to contact EA support to ensure my issue wasn't over looked. Thats a bit silly telling customers not to contact them if they are being stopped from playing.

  • Phantom_Dynamite #6 4 months ago

    Also stop people flying around on MAV's to get on top of in accessible buildings.

  • carlitoswagon #7 4 months ago

    @Hellion83 - Not sure your comment is accurate. Fan of both 1943 and BC2 but they don't look better than BF3. Compare the old and new Wake Island. You'll see what I mean.

  • Andrija92 #8 4 months ago

    It's NOT a punkbuster exploit, only GGC.

  • DwarfyP #9 4 months ago

    @mccappind It wasn't, it was an issue with GGC website that is part of PB Streaming, if you remember, this happened long ago with PBBans on another Battlefield game (forgot which).
    Edited by DwarfyP at 30/01/12 @ 12:35

  • VibratingDonkey #10 4 months ago

    @Phantom_Dynamite
    Also stop people flying around on MAV's to get on top of in accessible buildings.
    I once caught a guy in the act. I shot the MAV out from underneath his feet and watched him float in mid-air for a brief moment before gravity smacked him into the ground. It was great.