As long as gaming has existed, there has been cheating. In some cases, such as Grand Theft Auto, they add a dash of fun to experience you already beat or simply would like to be less challenging. In the case of multiplayer titles, such as Call of Duty, they can ruin the entire experience by allowing a player far beyond the means of the game. One such device that has become popular for consoles in recent years is the Cronus Zen.
In a recent update on the PlayStation 5, the use of the “controller emulator” Cronus Zen has been blocked from use. While the device isn’t marketed directly as a cheating device (because of course, why would you), it it does have applications that do just that.
First spotted by CharlieIntel (via The Verge), Cronus has posted an update to their website stating that since the 24.01-08.60.00 update, the device will no longer connect to PlayStation 5’s. Notes for this update do not mention the disabling of the Cronus Zen as a feature, meaning this could be an accident, or more likely a feature being kept hush-hush to blindside users and the device manufacturer.
While this is great news for PlayStation fans, the device is still usable on Xbox and PC to the best of my knowledge, with the company having detailed setup guides for their use. In fairness, there are so many legitimate uses for the device, being originally intended to allow non-official controllers such as an Xbox controller to connect to a PlayStation. It also more popularly allowed for mouse and keyboard support.
Some games such as Final Fantasy XIV allow a mouse and keyboard natively on the console, with most that don’t view this as cheating anyway. It was the Script Engine, allowing you to outright alter gameplay such as recoil or hitboxes, where the device encountered controversy, and honestly became a selling point.
As a GameStop employee, I can say there isn’t a week that goes by where I am not asked for the product. In some cases, I have even endured customers screaming at me because they got banned despite my making sure they were aware of the fact when I sold it. The question becomes, will this hurt the device’s sales or will they quickly adapt to a new version to circumvent this update?
Either way, it’s hard to have much sympathy having been mocked serval times by uses of the device on Overwatch 2.
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