Activision Curbs Call of Duty Crossplay Cheating

Activision has responded to widespread player concerns regarding cheating in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Warzone, announcing plans to allow console players in Ranked Play to disable crossplay with PC players.

Since the introduction of Ranked Play in Black Ops 6 and Warzone with Season 1 last year, cheating has become a major point of contention within the competitive Call of Duty community. Many players believe the prevalence of cheaters is severely impacting the competitive experience, leading to significant criticism of Activision's initial response.

Activision's Team Ricochet, the anti-cheat division, acknowledged shortcomings in their Season 1 launch, stating that their anti-cheat integration, particularly in Ranked Play, fell short of expectations. Subsequent updates have improved the situation, but the initial failure was significant.

A recent blog post details Activision's 2025 anti-cheat strategy, revealing over 136,000 Ranked Play account bans since the mode's launch. Season 2 will introduce enhanced client and server-side detection systems, along with a major kernel-level driver update. Further advancements, including a new 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 it.

Season 2 will also introduce a crucial feature for console players: the ability to disable crossplay in Ranked Play for Black Ops 6 and Warzone. This addresses a long-standing concern, as PC players are widely believed to be responsible for the majority of cheating incidents. Console players have long disabled crossplay in standard Multiplayer; this change extends that option to Ranked Play. Activision plans to monitor the impact of this change closely and may implement further adjustments to maintain game integrity.

While Activision's anti-cheat efforts are often met with skepticism, the company has invested heavily in Ricochet, pursuing legal action against cheat developers with notable successes. Before Black Ops 6's launch, Activision stated a goal of banning 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 designed for rapid detection and analysis of gameplay to counter aimbots.

Activision acknowledges the sophisticated and organized nature of cheat developers, emphasizing their ongoing efforts to detect and remove cheaters from the game. They highlight that every cheat attempt leaves traces that their team actively pursues.