For a rough example of how the math works, let's say we have a game that is 5v5. If we have 100 players, 1 player cheating, and everyone plays once you end up with 9 players having their game ruined. That's 9% of players impacted by having 1% of the players cheating.
Being so good at anti-cheat that there is nothing to talk about seems like something so far away it's not worth thinking about.
But that said, I doubt the gains from allow "controversy" around cheating would outweigh the benefit of not having any cheating in the game. Not having cheaters is it's own talking point. Withing the competitive gaming community, cheating is already a major talking point and having little to no cheating is already a major selling feature.
Your whole argument is also based on the idea that there is no such thing as bad publicity. This is incorrect. If your game gets a reputation for being full of cheaters then people will leave your game and probably not come back. If the first time you hear about a game, all you hear is that it is full of cheaters are you going to head out to the store to buy a copy?
My experience is a little different: if I buy enough in game shizzle (be it free to play or games like WoW with a buildin store), I get away with murder.
> For a rough example of how the math works[...]
IMHO You are right about the math, but use the wrong parameters. Many game companies that accept additional currency actually allow their moneymakers to "bend the rules". No hard data, just my individual observations while using "tools" in different settings.
I'm pretty sure I want to play games in which there is no cheating though.
You could do handicapping, so in an FPS rather than allowing wallhack lower players get a call from control "someone is closing on your position [from the North"]". Or new players are 'fresh' and can move faster. You need to weight it very carefully though.
I think cheating is kind of funny as long as it's not widespread or required to play the game enjoyably. I think anyone who gets offended about it is taking their video games way too seriously
For another example, somebody yesterday suggested that Amazon intentionally broke their website on Prime Day for the publicity. I downvoted that too. I do disagree, but more than that, I just don't think they add anything.
I have heard a lot more about the PS4 platform from all the clever hacks people have come up with than I have about the 360 or xbone, and if I were to buy a console it would likely be a PS4.
Few seemed to actually care if the srever's elite guilds were using no wall hacks to get loot or someone was running with 6 chars receiving identical input, or botting their dailies overnight.
I agree with you that adding cheating to the cocktail of toxicity would probably not be significant enough to lose a large group of players. However cheating may yield a competitive advantage too large to be overlooked by the players.
Personally I used to get more annoyed by queuing for a matchup and someone dropping so we're in a team one short, or by poor matching than cheating which was usually more of an eye-roll moment for me.
Resolution would have required GMs using a (temporary) ban hammer to bring some repercussion to all the toxic reports in the chat logs, not just headline anti-cheat sweeps and very rarely during tournaments. The resulting toxic anarchy seemed the obvious and inevitable result of games ignoring just about every behaviour. Which is why I voted by removing my wallet. :)
They will spend a few weeks/months detecting cheaters, but do nothing.
Then, they will ban many users of a given cheat at the same time. This creates press, which helps the message of "you will be banned if you cheat" spread further than if they had immediately banned each offender.
It's bad enough that cheaters, after getting banned, will come to the game forums or reddit and make a ton of noise about getting banned "for no reason". All too often, you'll have a few people (though most of them probably on puppet accounts) that jump on the post and spread lies about Riot banning people for insignificant infractions, when the real cause was cheating.