Recently, the tactical shooting game ‘Delta Operation’, which just surpassed 30 million daily active users, faced a wave of backlash from players.
In the comments section of an official adjustment statement, over 560,000 comments criticized the developers for adjusting the self-created gameplay mode “Shared Prison”, which sparked dissatisfaction among players. The rampant issue of cheats further compromised the game's fairness.
Despite an official apology, the breach of trust has already manifested, significantly impacting ‘Delta Operation's’ rankings and revenue. According to statistics, the game experienced a marked decline in iOS revenue over the past month, with daily revenue dropping by more than 60% at one point; its ranking in the iOS free charts has similarly declined.
Concurrent competitors have seized the opportunity to launch targeted marketing campaigns, with rival games promoting slogans like “Easy Evacuation is Winning” and “Team Evacuation”, which appear to mock ‘Delta Operation’.
Self-created gameplay faces official adjustments Since its launch, ‘Delta Operation’ has attracted many hardcore players with its high difficulty and risk “search-fight-evacuate” gameplay. Players invest significant “combat readiness points” to scour the map for supplies, with the risk of losing everything.
To adapt to this high-pressure scenario, players spontaneously formed a non-official cooperative strategy called “Shared Prison” in the highest difficulty map, “Tidal Prison”. This involved multiple players selecting the defensive operator “Deep Blue” (nicknamed “Shield Dog” for carrying a riot shield). Upon meeting, players would jump three times as a sign of goodwill, avoiding conflict while gathering resources to escape together. This cooperative play greatly reduced confrontation and casualty rates, allowing participants to gather resources successfully.
However, this phenomenon caught the official team's attention. Recently, the ‘Delta Operation’ project team announced significant adjustments to the escape points and the “Deep Blue” operator in Tidal Prison due to “unfair combat phenomena in some matches”, aiming to weaken or even prohibit the “Shared Prison” gameplay.
This announcement incited a strong backlash from the player community. The official comments section saw a flood of over 560,000 responses, predominantly opposing and criticizing the changes.
Many players expressed that the officials were “teaching players how to play the game”, insisting that “search-fight-evacuate” should be based on skill, and that the developers should not restrict cooperation. Some sarcastically asked, “Must the planners teach people how to play the game?” expressing discontent over the developers’ interference with player-created gameplay. Numerous posts on social media questioned the rationale behind the adjustments, claiming these actions undermined the game’s fairness and enjoyment.
In response to the overwhelming opposition and dissatisfaction, the officials issued an apology. The statement expressed regret that “the recent update caused a lot of confusion and dissatisfaction”, acknowledging that the handling was “sudden and inappropriate” and committing to reflecting seriously on every piece of player feedback.
Despite official conciliatory gestures, the trust gap among players has emerged. According to statistics from the Data Dot platform, on October 6th (the day after the adjustment announcement), ‘Delta Operation’ rose to its highest ranking of 6 in nearly 30 days on the iOS free charts, but subsequently saw a continuous decline, hitting 26th on October 17th. Though there has been a slight recovery, the ranking is still around 20. In terms of revenue, the daily figures on iOS dropped from a peak of approximately $4.59 million to a low of $1.51 million, a staggering decline of 67%. Though the revenue drop might be influenced by the season's end and other factors, considering the mood within the player community, the “Shared Prison” incident has undoubtedly impacted both user activity and willingness to pay.
Cheating proliferates, with merchants earning thousands monthly In addition to gameplay controversies, ‘Delta Operation’ has recently come under fire for rampant cheating. The segment ‘BUG’ discovered a significant number of stores selling “Delta Assist” and “Delta Vision” cheat programs on second-hand trading platforms like Xianyu and Taobao. These cheats range in price from a few to over a hundred Yuan, featuring functions such as “smart vision” (highlighting enemies, teammates, and supply locations) and “auto-aim” (automatically locking onto enemy weak points and optimizing ballistic trajectories).
Some stores reportedly sell thousands of units monthly, with some achieving sales of over 6,000 per month; even at the lowest price of 18 Yuan, monthly revenues can reach tens of thousands. Alarmingly, searches on Baidu for “Delta + Vision” or “Delta + Assist” yield numerous cheating websites, with some sellers claiming their cheats offer “cross-platform compatibility” usable on PC, Android, and iOS. One store stated, “Three-platform operation, instant authorization, no complicated steps required”, while another indicated that many boosting studios also use their cheats.
On social media platforms like Bilibili, the widespread cheating has provoked considerable outrage among ordinary players. Many players have shared experiences of being dominated by cheats through videos, with one player humorously noting, “Now I have to pray when entering the game not to encounter a cheat.” Notably, many players have left negative reviews in Steam's feedback section, stating that “the game cannot be secure while cheats exist”.
Faced with strong player dissatisfaction, the developers have not remained inactive. Early on, they proclaimed a significant investment of resources into combating cheats. In October 2024, the ‘Delta Operation’ security team, along with police, cracked the first major cheating operation, shutting down a gang involved in creating and selling cheats and banning over 1,300 cheating accounts. In January 2025, they announced the cumulative ban of over 880,000 cheating accounts for ten years, including over 210,000 accounts using DMA memory reading cheats, with an additional ban of more than 220,000 cheating devices for a year. Moreover, they intercepted over 210,000 attempts to inject cheats via QR code and banned over 251,000 game characters using cheats, coordinating with the police to conduct three offline operations, arresting three cheat authors.
Additionally, in mid-October, the ‘Delta Operation’ team released a cheat management report indicating that from October 6 to 12, they banned 88,556 cheating accounts within just one week, showcasing some typical cases. However, some players pointed out that such large-scale bans underscore the severity of the cheating issue, implying that thousands of players cheat daily considering nearly 90,000 accounts were banned in one week. This scale of cheating undoubtedly poses a significant challenge to ordinary player retention and willingness to pay.
It's worth noting that the cheat proliferation has sparked a gray market within the game. Some skilled players or boosting studios provide “escort” services using cheats or vision, charging fees to help other players complete challenging tasks or acquire rare supplies. This behavior essentially constitutes cheating and damages the game's fairness.
Income begins to decline, competitors take the chance to “mock” Industry expert Zhang Shule analyzed that the emergence and spread of cheats are driven by high profit incentives, making them challenging to combat. The cheating issue in FPS games has persisted for a long time, often characterized by a “heightened cat-and-mouse game,” with the defensive side remaining passive. Cheaters continuously update their programs to evade detection. Even though the developers ban a batch of accounts, new accounts and cheats appear shortly after, creating doubts among players about the developer’s ability to eliminate cheats.
According to data from Data Dot, the iOS revenue of the game saw a significant decline in early October, with daily revenue dropping from approximately $4.59 million to a low of $1.51 million, with the drop exceeding 60% at one point. While players' willingness to spend may have diminished due to the end of the season, combined with the simultaneous drop in the free chart ranking, it can be inferred that player spending enthusiasm has been impacted.
Additionally, the competitive landscape surrounding ‘Delta Operation’ has intensified. As a game that merges “Tarkov-style” survival evacuation with battle royale, it initially had no direct competitors, allowing it to rapidly gain popularity. However, as this game type has been proven successful, various major companies have entered the fray.
For instance, NetEase's ‘Firefly Strike’ recently released a promotional video titled “Easy Evacuation is Winning,” clearly leveraging the controversy around ‘Delta Operation’ to attract users. Other similar games like ‘ARC Raiders’ and ‘Escape from Duckkov’ have also engaged in opportunistic marketing: the former emphasizing “cooperative evacuation,” and the latter touting “XX is always your exclusive home,” creating a charged atmosphere and leading numerous players to comment in favor of migrating to other games.
Industry insiders believe that with the increase of competing products, this wave of controversy and rampant cheating will pose external pressures that ‘Delta Operation’ must confront. Should core users leave due to dissatisfaction, they are likely to be captured by other shooting games.
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