Activision admits that an issue affected Call of Duty that allowed cheaters to get in en masse.
Early reporting on the issue came courtesy of CharlieIntel. This is what they initially stated in Twitter, over the weekend:
“There seems to be an influx in cheaters across Warzone after Season 5 launch, including in Ranked.
Many of the cheaters seem to be playing via PC Game Pass (Microsoft Store version) as they appear with “Xbox” logo in lobby and are using hacks.
No comment from Activision yet.”
Based on this information, it seemed that Richochet, Call of Duty’s proprietary anti-cheat system, did not necessarily break down. Rather, a vulnerability appeared that allowed cheaters using PC Game Pass to enter games. Similar activity was not reported for Xbox console players cheating, or for that matter, Steam players, Activision Windows client players, or PlayStation players.
The official Call of Duty Updates Twitter account shared this response a few hours ago:
“RICOCHET Anti-Cheat resolved an issue with a detection system over the weekend, which resulted in a spike in cheater reports.
For clarity, #TeamRICHOCHET is able to detect the specific platform for all users, despite how they may appear in-game. If you suspect a player in your lobby is cheating, regardless of platform, we recommend you submit a report in-game for further investigation.
We remain committed to combating cheaters, shutting down cheat vendors, and providing our players a fair and fun experience.”
Activision likes to talk about how effective Ricochet is, and ironically, this instance of an error also shows what the anti-cheat system is like. Ricochet is definitely not perfect, but Activision was able to resolve the issue without having to shut down the game completely, or in part.
And, it was ultimately a minor error in detecting cheaters to block them, instead of a real vulnerability that would have crippled the game’s meta completely. To put this in perspective, when cheaters managed to hack into Splatoon and Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U, Nintendo were forced to put the games offline for five months – even when they had only scant months left before the servers for both games would be taken offline permanently.
To Nintendo’s credit, they still went through the trouble of bringing online services back for those last two months. But given how huge Call of Duty is as an annualized franchise, Activision can justify building a robust anti cheat system like Ricochet to ensure that such issues don’t happen to their games.
