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Activision doesn’t seem to be very bothered by the fact the new Call of Duty anti-cheat has already reportedly gotten into the hands of cheaters. Call of Duty has been plagued with cheaters for the last several years, and it has only gotten worse over the last year as Warzone has grown more popular. Cheaters realized Activision doesn’t IP or hardware ban hackers most of the time, so they’d just make new accounts and continue their efforts.
That said, after enough backlash from fans, Activision announced its very own anti-cheat system for Call of Duty. The anti-cheat system, called Ricochet, adds server-side tools to monitor players and a kernel-level driver to the PC version of the game. This will be able to identify any apps that interact and attempt to manipulate Call of Duty games. The anti-cheat system will arrive alongside the new Warzone map in November and be implemented into Vanguard shortly after. That said, just days after revealing it, a cheat maker reportedly got its hands on the source code of the anti-cheat.
The official Call of Duty Twitter account noted that Activision has put Ricochet into “controlled live testing” and has sent out a pre-release version of the driver to select third-parties. Although the Call of Duty anti-cheat wasn’t meant to leak, the publisher doesn’t seem to be too bothered that people are trying to reverse-engineer the anti-cheat before it launches. The cheat makers have a head start, but Activision appears to be moving forward with its system.
Update from #TeamRicochet:
▶️ RICOCHET Anti-Cheat™ is in controlled live testing. Before putting it on your PC, we’re testing the hell out of it
▶️ Testing includes providing a pre-release version of the driver to select 3rd parties
▶️ Readying server-side upgrades for launch— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) October 15, 2021
It’s unclear whether hackers will still be present at Ricochet’s launch, but Activision is seemingly trying to put multiple things in place to ensure the game is more secure than it was before. Since getting more aggressive about countering cheaters, Activision has hardware-banned such culprits when caught. Hackers are likely to always be a constant force in any game of the same (or similar) kind, but their prevalance and impact can be overwhelming to a point that their efforts can ruin the gaming experience for others.
As a result, the shape of its first-person shooter franchise will be improved if Activision can make cheating a rarer occurrence. Call of Duty: Vanguard’s beta had hackers and it’s possible they will be present when the game launches. Since Vanguard will get Ricochet at a later date, there’s no telling how much of an issue cheaters will be in the game. These cheat makers are hard at work trying to capitalize on this situation as much as they can. Activision already has a lot of pressure on its shoulder with all of the rivaling shooter games it will compete against this holiday season – and the possibility of its own hacker-riddled gaming experience only intensifies that pressure.
Source: Call of Duty/Twitter
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