Square Enix strips ‘Final Fantasy 14’ achievements from raid-beating team who used cheats

1 February, 2023

Final Fantasy 14

Square Enix has stripped the first Final Fantasy 14 team in the world to defeat a recently added endgame boss of its achievements, after they were accused of cheating.

Last week, Square Enix added new boss The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) to the massively multiplayer online game, with countless raid teams around the world setting out to be the first to take it down.

On January 30, team Unnamed shared footage of them defeating the level 90 ultimate raid, however they were soon accused of using forbidden third-party tools during the challenge.

Following their alleged victory, an unlisted YouTube video was shared online that showed several members of the team using a variety of mods, including one that allowed the players to zoom the camera out to see the entirety of the boss arena.

Final Fantasy 14’s producer and director Naoki Yoshida acknowledged the allegations in a blog post the following day and said the team is “conducting an investigation on the matter. If the facts are confirmed, we have not, and will not overlook this kind of wrongdoing.”

Yoshida went on to say: “The terms of service for Final Fantasy 14 state that the use of third-party tools is strictly prohibited. This has always been the case and will continue to be so.”

“It is extremely disappointing for me personally to see this commotion surrounding third-party tools once again. As the individual who is entrusted with full supervision over Final Fantasy 14, it is my responsibility to enact countermeasures and police the use of these tools, as well as educate people to not use these types of third-party tools,” he added.

“This is especially unfortunate when I, as a gamer, am cheering on everyone who is learning this content by trial and error and putting in the effort to clear [the raid].”

“The ultimate raid series is the most difficult battle content within Final Fantasy 14. If the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost.”

One Unnamed member then took to Twitter to confirm “we have all just received in-game punishment on this matter.”

“Finally, I’m truly sorry for all the trouble I caused to the Final Fantasy 14 development team, the community and all of my friends,” they added.

Another conversation confirmed that the team had had their rewards for beating The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) confiscated and their titles as “world first” revoked.

In other news, Bethesda has confirmed that its upcoming vampire shooter Redfall will launch with Denuvo and require a “persistent online connection” to play, even within its single-player mode.

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