As noted by our sister site TouchArcade, Apple today announced that game developers now have the ability to view and edit the top 100 positions in Game Center leaderboard listings for their games, giving them the power to delete fake scores from the list.
You can now view and manage the top 100 scores and usernames for all of your Game Center leaderboards. Protect your legitimate players by signing in to iTunes Connect to delete fake scores or block players that post fake scores. You can also restore scores and players within the same time period.
A number of high-profile games have seen fake Game Center scores clogging up the very top of their global leaderboards, and Apple's new feature should go a long way to assist developers with cleaning up their leaderboards. The feature will also give legitimate users shooting for the top of the lists more recognition for their efforts, should developers of their games choose to take an active role in monitoring for fake scores.
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Apple notes in its developer documentation that developers can view the top 100 scores for various leaderboards, delete and restore scores from the lists, block players from posting scores to a leaderboard, and restore blocked players with their most recent scores prior to being blocked.
One issue with the new feature is that scores are maintained for review for only 30 days, meaning that scores need to have been added within that window in order to be available for removal. Likewise, removed scores and blocked users can only be restored within that same window.
It is currently unclear if Apple has any plans for or is open to the possibility of offering developers a one-time sweep to help clear out fake scores that have accumulated since the launch of Game Center three years ago, but at the very least developers can clean up any new fake scores being posted to their leaderboards if they remain vigilant.
Update: Apple has now updated its developer documentation to suggest that there is no 30-day restriction on deleting scores, meaning that developers are free to clean up fake scores from any time. The 30-day limitation applies to restoring deleted scores and blocked users.
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Top Rated Comments
(View all)Now how about fixing all those fake reviews on the app store and stop listing apps with low stars rating on the top charts.
Can this be programmed to limit scores to a certain amount? If not, it will be a pain for the developers to remove the constant fake scores all the time.
I don't want a cheater limited to the best possible score and recognized as #1 and not be removed. I want the cheater to be removed and blocked from posting scores because they are a complete douche with no life at all. If you limit the scores to a certain amount then you'll just have dozens of cheaters tied at that amount.
What should happen is if a game developer created a game, and knows what the best possible score is in said game, and someone posts a score higher than that, the developer should be able to contact report the player name to Apple, and they can review and permanently ban that account from posting any scores for any games on Game Center. I know Apple permanently bans accounts suspected of app reviewal illegitimacy.
By the way, you can cheat by simply opening the app on the computer on changing things.
I'm glad they're allowing developers to cleanup. Honestly though, I was #1 in a game once. It was a horrible experience. Every two minutes, I'd get some crazy person trying to get me to add them as a friend. It was so annoying that I turned off friend requests, and ended up removing the game altogether.
The achievements are nice otherwise and I love when I get a new one. :D