Activision bans 60,000 Call of Duty: Warzone cheaters in one fell swoop

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: Activision has dropped the ban hammer on thousands of cheaters looking to gain an unfair advantage in Call of Duty: Warzone. The publisher also outlined several additional steps it has taken to strengthen the platform and make it easier for gamers to report cheaters. It's all a step in the right direction, but whether or not the collective efforts make a substantial impact remains to be seen.

In a blog post on the subject, the publisher said it recently banned 60,000 accounts linked to confirmed cases of using cheat software in Warzone. With the move, Activision has now permanently banned more than 300,000 Warzone cheaters worldwide since launch.

Call of Duty: Warzone is the free-to-play battle royale mode within Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It was introduced during season two and pits up to 150 players against each other in a battle to be the last one standing. It is available to install as a standalone game, independent of Modern Warfare. As of August 2020, the game had 75 million players.

Activision said it is also continuing to “identify and address” those who distribute modding / hacking software.

Last summer, if you recall, Activision threatened CxCheats with legal action, prompting the cheat software marketplace to cease development and support for all Call of Duty related products and services.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88513-activision-bans-60000-call-duty-warzone-cheaters-one.html

 

[texasrattler]

About time. ban them all n keep doing it.

 

[Prosercunus]

Good first step. I really want to like the game, but it would be nice if they allow us PC gamers to disable crossplay with console players.

 

[Lionvibez]

Keep that ban hammer swinging. I've been gaming for about 25 years now and I don't ever remember so many cheaters in the past.

I wish they would post stats of which country or state/province has the most cheaters.

 

[Robertrogue]

About time they started to gut the hacks and cheaters out of the games. It makes the games more fun when everyone is on the same playing field!!

 

[sac39507]

What about multiplayer of the main game? I play that a lot and know for sure people are cheating. Why spend so much effort on a free game and so less effort for a paid-for game?

Cheaters are low life pathetic POS's. Anyone who doesn't believe cheating exists, visit engineowning.com and read their forums.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Good first step. I really want to like the game, but it would be nice if they allow us PC gamers to host private servers so we dont have to play with randoms.

FTFY.

 

[gamerk2]

Meanwhile, 60,000 disposable email accounts were just snapped up for some reason.

Unless you issue bans against the PCs MAC address, they're just going to re-register, cheat to unlock everything, and start again.

 

[redhat]

Either ban based on hardware's IDs or make server dedicated for cheaters otherwise go home or you can do as
Apex Legends do, Invest in cheating tools and sell them to the cheaters so that you produce nice income from free games

 

[texasrattler]

Either ban based on hardware's IDs or make server dedicated for cheaters otherwise go home or you can do as
Apex Legends do, Invest in cheating tools and sell them to the cheaters so that you produce nice income from free games

Activision can do hw bans but I think they prefer not to.
They already send cheaters to their own server with their own kind. Happens when you get shadow banned. if they get perma banned they cant access the game so no server needed.

 

[OneSpeed]

It would be nice to see all the cheaters on the same servers and they can play themselves, muhahaha...

 

[sac39507]

Keep that ban hammer swinging. I've been gaming for about 25 years now and I don't ever remember so many cheaters in the past.

I wish they would post stats of which country or state/province has the most cheaters.

I bet my money on China and Russia

 

[Uncle Al]

Cheaters are the main reason I only play single player games now days ..... just wasn't worth the time or effort to put up with the little brats .....

 

[Lionvibez]

Meanwhile, 60,000 disposable email accounts were just snapped up for some reason.

Unless you issue bans against the PCs MAC address, they're just going to re-register, cheat to unlock everything, and start again.

Wouldn't it be just as easy to change your nic and then jump back on with a new MAC address?

 

[hahahanoobs]

Meanwhile, 60,000 disposable email accounts were just snapped up for some reason.

Unless you issue bans against the PCs MAC address, they're just going to re-register, cheat to unlock everything, and start again.

Careful what you ask for. In our current climate, using a users MAC address even to block cheaters might not impress online privacy advocates.

What would be cool in theory is if the internet was flooded with infected software that wipes random files on the cheaters' computer forcing a factory reset or reinstall.

 

[Austinturner]

Cheaters are the main reason I only play single player games now days ..... just wasn't worth the time or effort to put up with the little brats .....

I suspect most of the cheaters are in the big AAA multiplayer games, I don’t notice people cheating (or being as toxic) in the niche multiplayer games I play like Squad and Arma.

 

[Ashford]

Either ban based on hardware's IDs or make server dedicated for cheaters otherwise go home or you can do as
Apex Legends do, Invest in cheating tools and sell them to the cheaters so that you produce nice income from free games

I've felt the same way re hardware bans but I think due to the ability to spoof mac addresses through the OS and to a lesser degree the impact on 2nd hand hardware sales they haven't gone this route.

 

[Hexic]

Either ban based on hardware's IDs or make server dedicated for cheaters otherwise go home or you can do as
Apex Legends do, Invest in cheating tools and sell them to the cheaters so that you produce nice income from free games

Back in the day of CoD4, we'd have Admins and Mods banning hardware IDs left and right because IP & account bans weren't sufficient for anyone with real intention to keep cheating.

People got around hardware bans, but we saw over the years the metrics of recurring cheating significantly dropped via hardware bans - to the point of a manageable level in most cases. You're always going to have a small group of diehard cheaters who will do near anything to return and cheat (and troll) everyone around them.

 

[punctualturn]

Cheaters are the main reason I only play single player games now days ..... just wasn't worth the time or effort to put up with the little brats .....

Same here.

I remember playing Quake 1 online and experiencing what playing with cheaters was, so I stopped playing online.

Then tried again with my Dreamcast and the first thing I heard on the headphones was "f@66et" so went back to single player game.

The only time I did that again was with Starcraft and it was because I exclusively played with friends. If they couldnt play, I didnt play either.

Any game the demands online gaming with others gets automatically ignored by me.

 

[sac39507]

Cheaters are the main reason I only play single player games now days ..... just wasn't worth the time or effort to put up with the little brats .....

I continue to stay on multiplayer because it is extremely gratifying to outsmart and on rare occasion actually beat cheaters. I often rage and get my blood pressure skyrocketing and veins bulging but I really love annoying and calling out those low lifes when I can.

 

[Gollum22]

Meanwhile, 60,000 disposable email accounts were just snapped up for some reason.

Unless you issue bans against the PCs MAC address, they're just going to re-register, cheat to unlock everything, and start again.

I'll do you one better:

Any account attached to a credit card.

 

[gamerk2]

I'll do you one better:

Any account attached to a credit card.

Me like. Heck, do it company wide for all their products, not just Warzone; that will teach them.

 

[Namtrooper]

Meanwhile, 60,000 disposable email accounts were just snapped up for some reason.

Unless you issue bans against the PCs MAC address, they're just going to re-register, cheat to unlock everything, and start again.

Don't they have two factor authentication for this?