The best way to play

Your PlaySafe ID is an anonymised and unique ID that is generated when you prove you’re a real person. It’s your key to play in PlaySafe protected matchmaking across games and services where you’ll only play with and against other real people who haven’t been caught cheating, hacking, botting or being inappropriate to children.

You unlock PlaySafe Protected matchmaking by connecting your PlaySafe ID to a game. You can only play here if you have a valid PlaySafe ID without any active penalties. This means that you will only play with real people who haven’t been caught cheating/hacking across any PlaySafe Protected game.

No. PlaySafe ID is an optional extra that you can use if you want, but you don’t have to. You can absolutely play games as they are today and not verify or use us.

We’re not looking to replace regular gaming as it is today, but we want to provide this space for users who do only want to play with / against other verified PlaySafe ID users.

If you want to play in PlaySafe Protected matchmaking where cheaters are held accountable and kept out of games, you do have to verify with us. 

13+ with a photo ID: Simply create an account and go through the KYC check. This is handled by our verification partner Entrust - PlaySafe ID doesn't store any of your documents or biometrics. You’ll verify yourself through the Entrust SDK with a picture of a document and taking a motion selfie. We only get notified by Entrust if the verification was successful, we then generate your random and anonymised PlaySafe ID.

Under 13s, or those without a document/ID: A parent will need to create an account with the steps above, and then they can add you as an under-18 user. Note: Child & parent accounts are linked and share penalties.

We use a process called “zero-knowledge verification”. PlaySafe ID doesn’t store any data, documents or biometrics from your verification. We have partnered with Entrust (formally Onfido) who are global leaders in the KYC, identity and verification industry.

Entrust do these checks for banks (including Revolut), insurance companies, and other major institutions. All users are protected by data privacy law imposed on Entrust, including but not limited to; UK, EU, Canadian, and state specific USA data privacy laws. They also have an incredible setup and security.

You verify your identity on the PlaySafe ID platform, powered by Entrust. We get told if the verification was successful by Entrust, and if it is, we generate a random and anonymised PlaySafe ID. It is this PlaySafe ID that is used with games and services.

We have two very simple rules:

1. Don’t use software or hardware to gain an unfair advantage over other players (cheat, hack, bot, script, etc).

2. Don’t groom or engage in inappropriate sexual behaviour towards children.

We don’t blacklist based on toxicity or other behaviour; that’s at the discretion of the game to handle as they see fit. We ultimately just care about cheating and child safety.

Cheating:
It depends, based on the strength of the info we receive. Bans range from weeks to years. It is worth mentioning that penalties scale, so someone caught cheating after a 6-month ban would receive a much longer ban on their next offence.

Child abuse:
CSEA (child sexual exploitation abuse), CSAM (child sexual abuse material) etc, and/or grooming all have one penalty. Straight permanent ban. These people will never be able to access any PlaySafe Protected game or service again.

When you verify yourself, Entrust checks if you’re real and if they’ve seen you before. They only notify us to create you a PlaySafe ID if you pass the check, and they’ve never seen you before. This process prevents anyone from creating a second PlaySafe ID.

For a penalty to be put in place against a PlaySafe ID, a number of steps have to be passed before any action is taken.

Firstly, a game developer has to submit a violation against a PlaySafe ID, noting what was detected and providing evidence of what they observed. We then evaluate this violation, looking at:

• The context of the game

• The context of the violation

• Our trust score of the user:
  How long has the user had a PlaySafe ID without penalties? How many games are connected? How many active sessions across those titles?

• Our trust score of the developer
  Developers are generally very good and accurate with detecting offenders, but we know there are some that might be overzealous with the ban hammer. Taking their trust score into account prevents this from happening.

Based upon this, we decide what penalty (if any) should be applied. This decision is made separately to what the game developers have enacted on their side. In some cases, we might decide that your PlaySafe ID shouldn’t receive a penalty, even when a certain game account has. There will also be a robust appeals-process that is currently in development.

Simple; don’t connect it, and don’t interact with people who have. 

You can 100% continue as you are today.

If you don’t connect your PlaySafe ID however, you don’t get all the benefits of the trust and safety that comes with only interacting with other people that are PlaySafe verified. But ultimately, you don’t have to connect your PlaySafe ID to something if you don’t want to.

Free for players forever. We charge games studios, and they’re willing to pay for a couple reasons.

- PlaySafe ID users are happier, play more, and spend more on average, so studios increase their bottom line.

- We reduce a lot of compliance risk for games studios, particularly on child safety, anti-fraud, and trust & safety. Each of these areas carry multi-million dollar fines, so it’s essential they do whatever they can to safeguard users.

TLDR: Our CEO was fed up with cheating in games and wanted to make a real solution. Anti-cheat is an essential tool, but it falls short. It doesn’t matter if you’re caught cheating - you can just create a new account.

PlaySafe ID was born out of frustration with how bad the gaming experience has gotten, and exists to provide meaningful accountability. Players want to have a fair and fun time, and parents want to know that predators are kept away from their kids. PlaySafe ID is here to ensure both of those things are true.