Ubisoft is looking into why a player got banned for making a 'photo mode' in The Division

ONLY WE MAKE PHOTO MODES!

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One of the defining additions to games this generation has been the “photo mode”. This quickly accessible option removes all HUD information and lets players line up the perfect shot for sharing on social media or with friends. The recently released Shadow of the Colossus remake puts this to great use, but there are a handful of other games that also have this option. The Division was not one, but a modder thought he’d fix that.

Matti Hietanen has been creating something known as “Cinematic Tools” for games on PC. His tools work with Battlefront II, Battlefield 1 and The Division, but apparently Ubisoft’s auto-banning system wasn’t having any of that. A few days ago, Hietanen Tweeted out an e-mail indicating that he had been permanently banned from connecting to The Division due to repeated infractions from his account.

While this sounds ridiculous, Hietanen’s tool does utilize a program known as Cheat Engine to manipulate games into providing access to different variables that are otherwise locked off. This would let Hietanen pause time, change weather conditions and even add filters to any image he was taking. To try and counter any possible banning, Hietanen locked the mode to PvE encounters, but that wasn’t enough to sidestep the issue. The story doesn’t end on a sad note, though.

Creative Director for Ubisoft, Julian Gerighty, Tweeted at Hietanen saying, “I’ll check this out today. Love your work and would like to see more,” so the hope is that Ubisoft will soon add an official photo mode to The Division with Hietanen’s work included. It only makes sense, seeing as how people on Twitter were very impressed with that Hietanen had come up with.