Sledgehammer looking into MW3’s new ‘Snaking 2.0’ exploit taking over multiplayer

Modern Warfare 3 lead developer Sledgehammer Games has opened an investigation into a cursed recreation of Call of Duty’s infamous “snaking” technique, indicating the exploit may not be long for this world.

A day after connecting with the CoD community via a Reddit AMA, Sledgehammer has noted how frustrated gamers have become over the enhanced snaking glitch in MW3 and are looking into the issue. “We’re investigating an exploit that allows players to sprint while appearing in the prone animation,” the devs wrote in a Nov. 21 tweet.

While Sledgehammer runs the CODUpdates account, the devs responded via the studio’s account, posting a red X and a snake emoji, indicating they too are frustrated with the reptilian bug.

Snaking sees a player use the crouch and prone animation to slide back and forward behind cover, giving them visual info about enemies ahead of them. To the enemy, the snaking player can barely be seen, with the technique incredibly powerful in a straight-up gunfight. It’s been a feature of numerous CoD titles in the past but has gained traction thanks to its use in the Call of Duty League—the pinnacle competitive event for CoD.

“Snaking 2.0,” as it’s been referred to, spawned at MW3’s launch in November and is something completely different entirely. The snaking 2.0 technique sees players dive into the prone position but then move at sprinting speed, crawling and slithering their way across the map. It’s not something Sledgehammer intended, and while the devs are happy to let players snake (for now), this new version cannot be tolerated.

The CoD devs haven’t given a timeframe for when the issue will be fixed, just that it was promoted to the “Known Issues” panel in the public MW3 dev Trello board. We also don’t know whether such a fix for the new exploit will affect its predecessor.

Players are rejoicing, and rightfully so; CoD’s already chaotic enough, and I don’t think we need players sliding around on their bellies at Mach Two clipping through objects and firing SMGs at us.