Fall Guys

Fall Guys is the free-to-play party battle royale from Mediatonic, where up to sixty bean-shaped players stumble through obstacle courses until one is left. It launched in August 2020 as a paid game on PlayStation 4 and Steam, became a phenomenon (over 7 million Steam copies in three weeks and a concurrent peak around 713,000), and went free-to-play on June 21, 2022, when it moved to the Epic GamesPublisherEpic GamesEpic Games is the publisher of Fortnite and the owner of Easy Anti-Cheat (acquired 2018). EAC is bundled with Epic Online Services and used by Fortnite plus over a hundred third-party titles.2 games in this family → Store on PC and left Steam for new players. Mediatonic has been an Epic Games studio since 2021.

Because Fall Guys skews young and family-friendly, here is the parent-facing version: installing it on PC also installs a kernel-level anti-cheat driver, Easy Anti-Cheat, that runs while the game is open. That is standard for online competitive games and removable by uninstalling the game, but it is worth knowing on a shared or a child's PC that something runs at the kernel level while they play. The main process is Fallguys_client_game.exe, and on PC new players install through the Epic Games Store.

Fall Guys uses Easy Anti-Cheat, which on Windows runs a kernel-mode driver that loads with the game. It was not there at launch: for the first weeks the game leaned on server-side detection and a memorable stopgap, a segregated Cheater Island lobby where confirmed cheaters were matched only against each other. EACAnti-cheatEasy Anti-Cheat (EAC)Easy Anti-Cheat is one of the most widely deployed kernel anti-cheats in PC gaming. Founded by Finnish company Kamu in 2006, acquired by Epic Games in 2018, and bundled with Epic Online Services. The kernel driver loads while a protected game is running. User-mode daemons EasyAntiCheat.exe and EasyAntiCheat_EOS.exe are catalogued in the Field Guide's processes section.18 games in this family → arrived in the mid-September 2020 update Mediatonic named Big Yeetus and the Anti-Cheatus. The main Windows process is Fallguys_client_game.exe, with an Easy Anti-Cheat launcher component alongside it. The early cheating it targeted was the party-game kind: speed hacks, super jumps, knockback immunity, and skipping countdowns.

Fall Guys was one of 2020's biggest launches, with over 1.5 million new players in its first day and a stretch where it out-drew Fortnite on streaming. The most-discussed business decision was the June 2022 shift to free-to-play and Epic Games Store exclusivity on PC, which delisted the game from Steam for new buyers and annoyed some players who preferred Steam, though existing Steam owners kept access. On cheating, Mediatonic moved from gathering data without bans, to the Cheater Island lobby, to Easy Anti-Cheat and active enforcement, partly because banned players were abusing account-sharing to return. Sources include GameSpot, Kotaku, PCGamesN, and Game Developer.