As Call of Duty: Warzone cheating complaints ramp up, Raven issues first anti-cheat update in over two months
At ease.
Call of Duty: Warzone developer Raven Software has issued its first anti-cheat update in over two months following increasing pressure from the game's community over hacking.
Complaints about cheating and hacking in Warzone have ramped up this year, with some high-profile players calling for action from Activision.
Earlier this month, popular Call of Duty content creator ZLaner made an impassioned plea to Raven to do something to combat cheating.
"Raven Software... can we please have some sort of transparency," he said in the clip posted to Twitter below. "This has been asked many, many times. Listen, I am in love with your game... the only reason I am this passionate about wanting this stuff to be dealt with is because I love your game. I love it so much. I want to see it thrive. One of the biggest issues this game has ever had is not having an anti-cheat and it being ridden with hackers."
Overnight, Raven announced it had issued two Warzone ban waves this week, for a total of over 50,000 accounts banned.
"Targeting repeat offenders, and much more," Raven said in a tweet.
Raven's last anti-cheat update was issued on 14th May, when the developer said it had stamped out over 30,000 accounts in a ban wave, bringing the grand total of banned accounts to over half a million.
"We have zero tolerance for cheaters across Call of Duty and Call of Duty: Warzone," Activision said in a blog post published in February.
Some have said Raven's latest figures don't go far enough. Popular Call of Duty YouTuber JGOD tweeted to say the number "should be much higher".
"There are at least a dozen that are on the leaderboards that slip past every ban since launch, so I could only imagine how many get missed with these waves," JGOD said.
The community remains sceptical about Activision's anti-cheat efforts with Warzone, and already there are more clips filling up the Warzone subreddit showing brazen cheating, even from streamers.
Activision: We have blocked 50k acccounts. And streamer plays on Twitch with silent aim, shoots into the air and all bullets hit... from r/CODWarzone
Video game developers and publishers face an uphill struggle combating hacking and cheating in their games, and Activision is no different. As a free-to-download battle royale with over 100 million players, Warzone is always going to be a target for cheaters. But Activision has shown it can move fast when it comes to taking on those who make cheats - this week Activision stepped in to stop development of a machine learning cheat after console competitive multiplayer fans expressed concern about its potential to ruin games.
Despite these efforts - and ban wave announcements - it appears Activision is struggling to shake Warzone's reputation for being a battle royale with a heavy dose of cheating.