Riot Games" FTP competitive multi-player shooter Valorant has incorporated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 and Secure Boot into its Vanguard Anti-Cheat game security software. This was confirmed by @AntiCheatPD on Twitter who had posted screenshots of users" systems that were unable to run the game on Windows 11. The following error message pops up on such "unsupported" systems that do not have one or both of the configurations enabled on their PCs:
This will mean forcefully installing Windows 11 on unsupported PCs also means you won"t be able to run certain games that deem such requirements necessary for anti-cheat security like Valorant has done. It could be a double whammy for users in terms of security as Microsoft also apparently may not provide security updates for Windows 11 on unsupported systems.
On the positive side, it could become difficult for actual cheaters on Windows 11 in Valorant to bypass hardware ID (HWID) bans due to this enforcement.
Valorant has started to enforce both TPM and Secure boot if YOU are playing on Windows 11 to ensure a trusted platform when playing Valorant. @RiotVanguard team yet again leading the anti-cheat industry in the right direction for competitive integrity pic.twitter.com/qgTM1yNqdA
— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) September 3, 2021
This will make it much harder to cheat, and not only that HWID bans will finally not be bypassed due to how TPM works, but this strategy should be adopted. To every game
— Anti-Cheat Police Department 🕵️ (@AntiCheatPD) September 3, 2021
This is indeed is the fattest W to ensure your games are safe!
So far, there is no official word from Riot Games about this. It will be interesting to see how the situation develops over time and what it means for other games on Windows 11 with similar anti-cheats in place.