Activision confirms its Ricochet anti-cheat system was highly successful during the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Early Access beta. Cheating has proven to be a major problem for the Call of Duty franchise and there was a major concern that the Black Ops 7 beta weekend would fall into the same issues that have plagued previous games.
For the Early Access portion of the Black Ops 7 beta, things seemingly didn’t get off to a great start as new clips began appearing online of the typical aimbotting, wallhacks, and other cheats impacting matches. Worry, frustration, and criticism quickly followed from fans, but behind the scenes, it seems that Activision and its anti-cheat Ricochet team moved quickly to ban many, if not all, of the caught accounts. New stats reveal the anti-cheat team was very busy safeguarding the overall experience, though with the open beta now live, it’ll be interesting to see if things continue to hold up.
Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Reveals Beta Anti-Cheat Stats
Following the conclusion of Early Access, Activision released a big post highlighting how effective Ricochet was during the first part of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta. Even though Black Ops 7 cheaters seemingly appeared initially, Activision confirmed that the upgraded systems behind the scenes were able to eliminate flagged accounts before the clips were even posted online. In fact, 97% of cheaters were “stopped within 30 minutes of signing in” and “fewer than 1% of cheating attempts reached a match.” Those who were able to sneak through were still removed from matches within minutes.
While the stats are fairly impressive, Activision wasn’t done. The publisher boasted that major cheat providers were now labeling tools as unusable or detected, with resellers “acknowledging they have no reliable products to offer for Black Ops 7.” Activision confirmed that over 40 cheat developers and resellers have been closed since the launch of Black Ops 6, with more vendors in the company’s line of sights. Finally, the post admitted that the updated security measures, like Secure Boot and Trusted Platform Module 2.0, can feel disruptive for PC players in particular, but they’re necessary to help ensure a fair and secure experience.
It’s an encouraging start for Black Ops 7, with additional security measures slated to arrive at launch. However, the game faces a lot of competition this year, more so than is usually the case. Its biggest contender is Battlefield 6, which had a massive couple of beta weekends which have easily outpaced Call of Duty to this point. With Battlefield 6 launching very soon, it’ll be interesting to see how these two massive franchises compete with each other at launch and beyond.