Last Epoch's developer has disabled family sharing in an effort to combat real-money trading and botting in the popular action RPG.
The buying and selling of in-game items for real-world money is pretty much an inevitability in any online game where trading is involved. It's a big problem for developers as this practice of buying your way to a better build not only gives players an unfair advantage and throws the in-game economy out of whack but also paves the way for bot-infested servers and financial scams.
Based on gathering loot and gaining levels, Last Epoch is, unsurprisingly, a prime target for RMT abuse, and in a statement, developer Eleventh Hour Games has outlined how it's tackling the problem.
"We have unfortunately had to disable family sharing on Steam for Last Epoch," Eleventh Hour Games explains in a post shared on the game's subreddit. "This feature enabled the use of significant RMT (Real Money Trading) and Botting options and was removing our ability to ban/remove accounts faster than they could share them with their entire networks."
This, the developer says, led to "significant" levels of "spam, RMT abuse, Gold Selling, and Botting," all within a short space of time.
"Disabling Family Sharing was necessary to combat these RMT services abusing this feature hurting the in-game experience for all players," the developer adds. We continue to prioritize player experience, from quality of life features in game design, to incorporating feedback, to social interactions within Last Epoch."
It not necessarily the end of family sharing in Last Epoch though as Eleventh Hour Games says it will "continue to explore options" for how it might implement the feature as well as keep these offending accounts at bay to ensure Last Epoch is "a welcoming community for everyone."
Last Epoch took Steam by storm last month, launching to rave user reviews and a concurrent player count of over 162,000. This popularity did, unfortunately, cause servers to buckle under the strain, leading to issues with multiplayer. In a message to fans, Eleventh Hour Games founder Judd Cobler thanked fans for their "patience and kindness" as the team tackled those initial teething problems.