Call of Duty: Warzone desperately needs an adequate and enlightened anti-cheat system to prevent the influx of hackers while Activision seeks to develop the competitive future of the game.
Call of Duty: Warzone was released to many fans in March 2020. It was the first free Call of Duty experience for consoles and PC. And that opened up the number of players who could enter the Call of Duty world. There was no more $ 60 barrier to try Call of Duty.
But with that, an influx of cheaters and hackers on the PC platform invaded Call of Duty: Warzone. Since the game’s release, there have been a lot of hackers in Call of Duty: Warzone on the PC platform. And with cross-game play, these hackers infest the PlayStation and Xbox lobbies as well.
The biggest problem has been: the lack of a concrete plan by Activision to deal with the hacking situation. The company issued some statements in 2020 about how they fight hacking in Call of Duty: Warzone, but none of them left fans with hope for a sustainable future for the title on the PC.
It makes sense, in other ways, that Call of Duty is being infested with cheaters at a greater pace compared to other free Battle Royale games. Call of Duty is one of the largest entertainment franchises available, and Warzone was the first chance that allowed all to play Call of Duty. There have always been cheaters and hackers in Call of Duty MP. But that was on a more controllable scale, with the game costing $ 60 to play. With Warzone, the barrier of entry is gone, and now hackers who could never hack Call of Duty before, can do so now. And with Activision’s lack of aggressive action within the game itself, she welcomes the field.
But aggressive action by Activision is needed to fight cheaters and is needed as quickly as possible.
Activision’s responses to cheaters in 2020
Activision’s first major stance towards cheaters was a few weeks after launch, when the company announced that more than 50,000 hackers were banned and said “cheaters are not welcome” in the Warzone world. Activision said it takes cheating “very seriously” and would work hard to maintain “a fair and level playing field for all” as one of its “highest priorities”
That hasn’t changed much. Hackers continued to flourish in the Warzone world on the PC. At the same time, Activision began to build its vision for a competitive future in a war zone. They started with the Live From Warzone series, which featured tournaments and fan-run events for Warzone.
On April 24, 2020, Infinity Ward’s next big step: hackers would be combined in the same lobbies just forward. They also said the studio “increased resources” to help ease the cheaters’ concerns.
And then, the worst statement of all time was released on July 24, 2020: Infinity Ward was kindly asking players not to use third-party software while playing Call of Duty: Warzone.
“Do not use unauthorized third-party software to modify or hack, ”Said an image statement from the studio, as shown below. They said that they listed the items they believe to be considered hacking / cheating and have not made progress on what they are doing to combat them.
Finally, the final update we received on the Warzone hacking issue was in September 2020. Infinity Ward said it has banned 200,000 accounts since the game’s release.
But 200,000 is nowhere near enough. There are, according to Activision, more than 90 million players who have played Call of Duty: Warzone. Only 200,000 banned accounts (this is the last official number of banned accounts that Activision has reported to the public).
Focused on the wrong thing
We will now give Activision credit in some areas. The company filed a lawsuit against many cheat makers who were designing cheats for Call of Duty: Warzone.
The company has issued orders to cease and desist for two fraudulent manufacturers. The first was CXCheats, which received an order to cease and desist in August 2020. As soon as they were threatened by Activision, the site removed all cheats related to Call of Duty: Warzone. And then, in September, Activision filed another lawsuit against GatorCheats and even sent a representative to the owner’s home. GatorCheats has removed all Warzone cheats from its website.
But the problem with the cease and desist orders is that there are an infinite number of companies out there that can create and manufacture game cheats. Just because you take two down through legal action, it doesn’t mean more will come. Activision probably thinks that threatening some will stop many more, but that was not the case. There is also a wide variety of online forums where players share cheats they have created, and these never appear or appear on the website of an ‘official’ cheat maker.
Activision’s only real action on the public side, which was a big step for them, was being able to detect EngineOwning cheats in Warzone. EngineOwning updated its website in September 2020 to claim that war zone cheats have been ‘now detected’ by Activision, and more than 20,000 accounts have been banned.
That’s what we need more of: focusing on fixing the game itself, not trying to prevent cheating from being done by the manufacturer. A comprehensive anti-cheat system is the best way for Activision to ensure that cheats cannot continue on Warzone.
There will always be hackers and cheaters in every game, but having comprehensive anti-cheat software will be able to reduce the overall number of hackers and help promote a more enjoyable gaming environment.
For example, Riot Game’s VALORANT FPS title has an anti-cheat developed for it called Vanguard. Riot has players install the Vanguard anti-cheat to play VALORANT on their PC. Although some players were able to access the software, it prevented the game from being infested by hackers, even if it is a free title.
Competitive Integrity
The situation with anti-cheat and hackers has gained speed on the competitive integrity side in recent months. Many high-level content creators have been playing in Warzone competitions, some of which have prizes thanks to Activision. And there are always suspicions of intrusion occurring during these events, and Activision has not yet solved that problem.
The most recent example was the $ 250,000 Twitch Rivals tournament for Warzone. This tournament was hosted in a private lobby, which means that all players were known and required to enter a specific server code. During the 5th match of the event, the game was stopped. There were suspected hackers at the start.
Twitch had to remove teams from the game and ban them, and then had to continue the tournament.
This is the problem we face in Warzone: it is a hugely successful game for Activision and it really has a bright future as a major force in the games industry. But why Activision and Blizzard cannot afford to waste time implementing a suitable anti-cheat system to ensure competitive integrity. Most importantly, why don’t they do this just to improve the overall quality of the game?
Fortnite has many tournaments and events, with more than $ 20 million in prizes planned for 2021. They solved many of the cheaters’ problems with an anti-cheat system. Apex Legends’ has a classified game mode that has an anti-cheat system to avoid these problems that the war zone faces.
Popular content creators have been talking about the lack of anti-cheat on Warzone for months.
NICKMERCS commented that he will not play in any Warzone tournament until there is an authentic anti-cheat system in place to prevent controversial victories.
And recently, Dr. Disrespect also commented on the drama that calls Activision for lack of adequate action to prevent the situation from happening.
Warzone certainly remains a very popular free Battle Royale option for many fans out there.
Warzone’s Future
And Activision seems to be investing in its future, too. Johanna Faries, vice president and head of leagues at Activision Blizzard Esports, recently revealed that the company has plans for Warzone to become part of the Call of Duty League.
“Have [plans to bring Warzone to Call of Duty League], and we are pleased to announce these plans in the coming weeks and months. We have been closely monitoring the introduction and wild popularity of Warzone since last spring. We brought content related to Warzone with our professionals last season, but we took the off-season to think more about what a more structured investment would be like. There are really exciting things to come this season. “
Good to hear that. But if they want a Warzone-based CDL or integration of the title into a sports program to succeed, Call of Duty: Warzone desperately needs an anti-cheat system to ensure that there is competitive integrity and no dispute over the legitimacy of the victories.
We hope that Activision has plans – sooner or later – to do that.