Activision has doubled down on its battle against cheaters in Call of Duty Black Ops 7 with amazing effectiveness, implementing aggressive new measures that have caught over 55,000 cheaters off-guard in August alone. The RICOCHET Anti-Cheat system has entered what developers describe as "full force" mode, combining real-time disruption tactics with hardware-level security requirements for the upcoming Black Ops 7 launch.
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Cheaters' Worst Nightmare
The most striking development in Activision's anti-cheat arsenal involves in-game measures that actively sabotage cheaters during matches. These tools make weapons disappear from cheaters' hands, cause their vehicles to explode on contact, and render legitimate players completely invisible to those using wallhacks. The psychological impact has been immediate: cheaters frequently expose themselves by posting on social media asking: "Why did this happen?"
These mitigations represent a shift from traditional approaches to a more effective (and sinister) strategy of psychological warfare. Rather than immediately removing cheaters, RICOCHET collects behavioral data while systematically destroying their ability to impact matches. The system neutralizes cheater weapons, disables their equipment, and creates decoy enemies that only they can see, a feature aptly named "Hallucinations".
Hardware-Level Security Fortress in Black Ops 7
When Black Ops 7 launches on November 14, PC players will face new security requirements. Both Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) will be mandatory, marking the first time Call of Duty has implemented hardware-level anti-cheat protection. These features create what Activision calls
"a stronger, more trusted foundation for detecting and blocking certain cheats before they can take root"
TPM 2.0 provides hardware-based security verification, while Secure Boot ensures only trusted software loads during system startup. The combination effectively locks out tampered PCs from connecting to Call of Duty servers, making low-level cheating significantly more difficult.
However, this move has generated controversy within the PC gaming community, as some older systems lack these features or require BIOS updates to enable them. Players must also ensure their system disk uses GPT partition style rather than MBR, and that their BIOS operates in UEFI mode.
Systematic Marketplace Disruption
Beyond targeting individual cheaters, Activision has launched a coordinated assault on the cheat development ecosystem. The company has successfully shut down nearly 40 cheat developers and resellers since Black Ops 6's launch, with 22 additional individuals recently receiving cease-and-desist letters.
The strategy has proven effective. When the long-running ArtificialAiming cheat service was detected, it resulted in massive permanent bans for users with accounts spanning years, prompting many to abandon cheating entirely.
Testing Ground for Enhanced Detection
The upcoming Black Ops 7 beta will serve as a live testing environment for new detection systems, though Activision warns that "the full force of our protections will be reserved for launch, when all systems come online together". These systems are designed to identify and remove cheaters faster than ever before, building on Black Ops 6's success in banning new cheating accounts within an average of four matches.
The beta testing approach allows RICOCHET Anti-Cheat developers to monitor system performance under real match conditions while refining detection algorithms. This iterative development ensures the anti-cheat system can adapt to new cheating methods before they become widespread.
The Endless Arms Race Continues
Despite these advances, Activision acknowledges the fundamental challenge facing all online games: "there's no one-and-done solution to the challenge of cheating". The company emphasizes that success lies not in eliminating cheating entirely, but in adapting faster than cheat developers can innovate.
The RICOCHET anti-cheat evolution reflects this philosophy, combining machine learning detection, real-time behavioral analysis, and proactive marketplace disruption. New account creation remains a persistent challenge, as banned cheaters can theoretically return with fresh accounts, though enhanced detection systems now catch repeat offenders more quickly.
As Call of Duty Black Ops 7 approaches, the gaming community watches to see whether these comprehensive measures can finally tip the balance in favor of legitimate players. With hardware security requirements, aggressive real-time mitigations, and systematic marketplace attacks, Activision has deployed its most comprehensive anti-cheat strategy yet, one that promises to make cheating not just difficult, but genuinely miserable for those who attempt it.
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Feature image credit: Call of Duty
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