In the never-ending arms race between online cheaters and video game developers, Activision has deployed a new weapon to clean upCall of Duty: Black Ops 6Ranked Play mode, the Ricochet AI.In just over one week, nearly 20,000 cheaters have been banned by the new system,which sweeps the network every hour, with the goal of banning cheaters within their first hour of gameplay. The company mentioned on social media that the AI system is still being optimized, and that a full report on Ricochet’s success would take place during the Q1 investor call. For now Activision is happy with the initial results cracking down on players using aimbots or wallhacks.
It’s a testament to the enduring popularity of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 that even after banning around 20,000 cheaters, the servers are still filled with gamers, but with that popularity comesthousands of hackers trying to crack the gameand sell different hacks offering an unfair advantage. Aimbots and wallhacks are the most common, but servers are also filled with those using radar-hacks, which reveal enemies on the mini-map at all times, trigger bots that will automatically fire at enemies in range, or even ones that remove weapon recoil. Websites selling hacks to popular games can earn millions of dollars a year and they’re also using AI these days to stay ahead of cheat-detection systems, forever perpetuating an arms race that Activision may claim to be winning today, but it’s a new battle every hour.
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A New Anti-Cheat Tool With A Mixed Reception
Functioning similarly to Riot Games Vanguard anti-cheating system used for League of Legends and Valorant,the Ricochet system patrolling Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 functions at the kernel-level of the computerwith access to every system on your device while it’s running. This way, the software can detect when anything interacts with the game files or onboard drivers. Companies that utilize kernel-level anti-cheat programs have been selling them to the public as the best weapon to use against cheaters, but that hasn’t stopped critics from raising concerns about the amount of information that they can access, and if it might end up becoming a privacy concern.
Activision has claimed that nearly 20,000 cheaters have been banned, but that’s only in Ranked Play, and even then, online discussions are complaining about how widespread the problem really is
At the same time, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6players on social media are reporting their own experiences with cheaters, and you can’t enter any discussion about the game without someone claiming they came across a wallhacker or an aimbot. Activision has claimed that nearly 20,000 cheaters have been banned, but that’s only in Ranked Play, and even then, online discussion groups are complaining about how widespread the problem really is. Despite these concerns, Black Ops 6 is another successful entry in the franchise,earning above-average reviewsand setting a new GamePass record with the most sign-ups for any game launch. After only a few weeks on sale, there’s stilla year of new contentto come, and cheaters aside, it’s on pace to be one of the biggest games of the year.
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the next entry in Activision’s FPS franchise, and it is expected to launch in 2024.
