The controversial publisher implemented its latest anti-cheat program in December 2021 to much excitement. Although Vanguard wasn’t the most well-received entry in the Call of Duty franchise, the game still enjoyed a healthy enough player base for Ricochet to make its mark. Nearly half a year later, this is exactly what Ricochet has done. According to Activision, the software has banned more than 180,000 players across Vanguard and Warzone since late April. More importantly, Ricochet is letting Activision annoy the living hell out of cheaters so that they leave Call of Duty on their own. As Activision explained in a recent blog post, Ricochet doesn’t ban cheaters outright. Instead, the team lets cheaters stay in Call of Duty to study their behavior and see how they react when they take away their weapons, make everyone else go invisible, or make them do less damage or none at all. With several features and anti-cheat measures in place, Activision is hopeful for the future of Call of Duty. Unfortunately, it is aware that its efforts are not always enough. Even after putting its best foot forward, the most that Activision can do is to minimize cheating in Call of Duty - not ban it outright. But, it is nice to know that Activision is seeing the fun out of policing Call of Duty as it has made it its “somewhat secret mission to any as many cheaters” as possible. The good news here is that Ricochet is only going to get better. It’s only been six months and Activision is already seeing positive results. The program should improve once it’s implemented to Modern Warfare 2 in October and Warzone 2 soon after.
title: “Activision Claims That Ricochet Is Working Against Call Of Duty Cheaters” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-18” author: “Jack Smith”
According to an official blog post, Vanguard and Warzone have seen a “significant” drop in the number of cheaters since the software started tightening the game’s security measures. However, Activision pointed out that it had also seen “some unfortunate increases” in cheating, which it explained is part of the “expected ebb and flow that is a frustrating reality in game security.” Activision added that while it will try its best to stay one step ahead of the cheat makers, it also knows that “tomorrow will continue to deliver new and evolving threats,” but it also explained that it is “always working to combat cheating.” Activision also gave insight into their so-called “mitigation” techniques that help them to combat cheaters in Call of Duty. Instead of banning cheaters outright, Activision is actually letting them stay in Call of Duty but with diminished capabilities. In doing so, Activision is hoping to learn from their behavior. Also, it appears that Activision isn’t above trolling all the cheaters, as it specifically pointed out how their measures can make cheaters go from “feelings of fake-best” to “glorious pangs of annoyance.” Activision teased that it’s still actively working on adding more “mitigation” techniques to Call of Duty so that it can “annoy as many cheaters” as possible and drive them out of the game. Of course, these types of updates are never complete without numbers. As revealed by Activision, it banned 180,000 players combined across Warzone and Vanguard in less than two months. It is also promising that Ricochet will come to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 once it arrives in October as well as Warzone 2. Speaking of Call of Duty, Infinity Ward is already planning for after it is done working on the marquee shooter franchise. As proven by several job postings, Infinity Ward is looking for individuals for an open-world RPG. This would mark the first time that Infinity Ward will set its eyes on a non-Call of Duty game. It would also “confirm” that Sledgehammer Games is working on the next Call of Duty game with Treyarch coming out with a standalone Zombies experience.
