Call of Duty: Warzone devs issue 60,000+ bans to cheaters in latest update

Activision is taking more aggressive steps to prevent cheaters after banning more than 60,000 members from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War and Warzone. The publisher is rumored to be taking more action after popular YouTubers and streamers have said they are “quitting” the battle royale. On Tuesday the publisher announced that more than 300,000 accounts have been banned for using cheat software since Warzone launched in March of 2020.  The Warzone developer also said that they are targeting distributors of various products that enable cheating, effectively targeting Call of Duty’s cheating problem on multiple levels. https://twitter.com/CallofDuty/status/1356721980855046144 “We know cheaters are constantly looking for vulnerabilities, and we continue to dedicate resources 24/7 to identify and combat cheats, including aimbots, wallhacks, trainers, stat hacks, texture hacks, leaderboard hacks, injectors, hex editors and any third party software that is used to manipulate game data or memory,” Activision wrote on its official Call of Duty blog. The publisher also said that Raven Software, the studio behind most of the battle royale’s development, will take over in working on the franchises “security and enforcement efforts.” The studio will provide monthly updates about their progress tackling the cheating problem across Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War, and Warzone.

The long battle of tacking cheaters in Warzone

Call of Duty: Warzone has had a rampant cheating problem for its entire lifespan. Activision had to ban 50,000 accounts within five weeks of the games’ launch. The publisher increased anti-cheat measures and implemented a two-step authentication system later in the year, although it has been relatively easy for cheaters to work around. The Warzone community has begged Activision to do more but the issue, which Infinity Ward has described as an “arms race,” has continued to plague the game. Players have heard promises from Activision before and seen little action come from one of the biggest publishers in the game industry. This time things are a little different as popular YouTuber Vikram “Vik” Barn, who has millions of subscribers, has said that he is quitting Warzone due to the high number of cheaters. Barn says that he now has an “open line of communication” with Activision about the problem following his announcement. “Fingers crossed for some positive change,” he tweeted. Warzone has been wildly successful on platforms like Twitch and YouTube but it’s not a good sign to see major streamers move on to play something else. This might be the push that Activision needs to put more resources into fighting cheaters.