Activision offers update on Call of Duty’s RICOCHET anti-cheat after part of it reportedly leaked yesterday

Yesterday's "leak" may have been part of the plan.
Image via Activision

Activision gave an update on Call of Duty’s RICOCHET anti-cheat system today, saying that it’s provided a pre-release version of the driver to “select third parties.”

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Yesterday, a version of RICOCHET’s kernel appeared on hacker forums, leading many to believe it had been leaked, giving cheat providers an opportunity to exploit the system in the weeks and months before it’s released. But now, it appears that it’s all a part of the plan set forth by Activision and CoD’s developers.

“RICOCHET Anti-Cheat is in controlled live testing,” Activision said. “Before putting it on your PC, we’re testing the hell out of it.” This testing includes providing a version of RICOCHET to third parties, such as cheat developers, for rigorous testing. As many suspected, the “leak” looks like it was a controlled one.

Basically, for RICOCHET to work the best way it possibly can, Activision seems to be using hackers and cheaters to see what may or may not work about the system. That way, when it comes time for a full release to the public, certain holes will have already been patched.

The team also said it’s readying server-side upgrades for launch, which will come sometime after Call of Duty: Vanguard releases on Nov. 5. RICOCHET will debut in Call of Duty: Warzone when its Pacific map drops later this year.

RICOCHET is being called “broad enhancement to the security” of Call of Duty and the kernel-level protection it offers on PC is just one part of it.

“The RICOCHET Anti-Cheat initiative is a multi-faceted approach to combat cheating, featuring new server-side tools which monitor analytics to identify cheating, enhanced investigation processes to stamp out cheaters, updates to strengthen account security, and more,” Activision said on Oct. 13.


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Author
Scott Duwe
Staff Writer & Call of Duty lead. Professional writer for over 10 years. Lover of all things Marvel, Destiny 2, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, and more. Previous bylines include PC Gamer, Red Bull Esports, Fanbyte, and Esports Nation. DogDad to Yogi the Corgi, sports fan (NY Yankees, NY Jets, NY Rangers, NY Knicks), Paramore fanatic, cardio enthusiast.