Activision Tackles Call of Duty Cheating with New Anti-Cheat Measures and Crossplay Options
Activision has responded to widespread player concerns regarding cheating in Call of Duty's Black Ops 6 and Warzone, announcing significant updates to its anti-cheat strategy and offering console players in Ranked Play the option to disable crossplay with PC players.
The surge in cheating reports, particularly since the introduction of Ranked Play in Season 1 of Black Ops 6 and Warzone, has fueled intense debate within the community. Many players believe cheating is severely impacting the competitive experience, leading to criticism of Activision's initial response.
Activision's Team Ricochet acknowledged shortcomings in its initial Season 1 anti-cheat implementation, stating that the integration of Ricochet Anti-Cheat fell short, especially in Ranked Play.
A recent blog post details Activision's 2025 anti-cheat roadmap. The company revealed over 136,000 Ranked Play account bans since the mode's launch. Season 2 will introduce enhanced client-side and server-side detection systems, along with a major kernel-level driver update. Further advancements, including a novel player authentication system designed to identify and target cheaters, are promised for Season 3 and beyond. Specific details on this new system are being withheld to prevent cheat developers from exploiting the technology.
A key immediate change for Season 2 is the introduction of console crossplay disabling in Ranked Play for Black Ops 6 and Warzone. Given the widely held belief that PC gaming accounts for a significant portion of cheating incidents, this option mirrors the existing crossplay disabling feature already available in standard Multiplayer for console players.
Activision emphasizes ongoing monitoring and potential future adjustments to maintain game integrity, promising further updates as the crossplay disabling feature approaches launch.
While Activision's anti-cheat efforts are often met with skepticism from the community, the issue of cheating remains a significant challenge for the publisher. The explosive popularity of Warzone in 2020 exacerbated the problem, prompting substantial investment in anti-cheat technology and legal action against cheat developers, resulting in several high-profile victories.
Prior to Black Ops 6's release, Activision pledged to ban cheaters within an hour of their first match. The game launched with an updated Ricochet kernel-level driver (also implemented in Warzone), incorporating new machine learning systems to accelerate detection and analyze gameplay to counter aimbots. Activision highlighted the sophisticated and organized nature of cheat developers, emphasizing their continuous efforts to identify and remove these malicious actors.
