Activision has responded to concerns about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Ranked playlist, and specifically the efforts being undertaken to try to thwart cheaters. The company says it’s banned thousands of players and is banning more people every hour, but some popular streamers have spoken out to voice their ongoing concerns.
In a statement, Activision said the AI-powered systems in Call of Duty’s anti-cheat technology, Ricochet, “continue to ramp up with code optimizations” that aim to “accelerate enforcements” against bad actors. Since Ranked play launched last week, Activision has banned more than 19,000 people, and Ricochet is doing “hourly sweeps” to kick more cheaters out.
Activision has always said the fight against cheaters is an ongoing battle, and one that may never be solved completely. Popular streamer Nadeshot responded to the statement, saying it’s “complete propaganda” from his vantage point.
“Ten names minimum in the first three pages we’re legitimately spin-botting LIVE on our streams. How could there possibly be 19K accounts banned when the most egregious abusers are giving us the middle finger on the leaderboard? Are we crazy? What is going on,” he said.
Another popular streamer, Westie, said Activision’s Ricochet updates are ineffective and that they “result in absolutely zero change to the gameplay experience.” He also said cheating remains a problem in Warzone. “It feels like the anti-cheat has been turned off,” he said.
Another issue that Call of Duty fans have surfaced is that the Ranked mode on console forces players to use cross-play, which puts them into matches with PC players. A mouse-and-keyboard setup is understood to be the most precise way to play a FPS like Call of Duty, and many have voiced concerns about a “level playing field” when people on console, using a controller, are forced to play against people using mouse and keyboard. Then there is the issue of cheating, as it’s generally easier to install cheat software on PC compared to console.
In other Call of Duty news, Activision recently reduced the player cap for Warzone’s new map, Area 99. Activision also announced that Black Ops 6 had the biggest launch in franchise history, thanks in part to Game Pass.