Call of Duty: Console Players Gain Crossplay Option

Activision Tackles Call of Duty Cheating with New Anti-Cheat Measures and Crossplay Options

Activision has responded to widespread player concerns regarding cheating in Call of Duty's Black Ops 6 and Warzone, announcing plans to allow console players in Ranked Play to disable crossplay with PC players.

The surge in cheating reports, particularly since the introduction of Ranked Play in Season 1 of Black Ops 6 and Warzone, has ignited intense debate within the Call of Duty community. Many players believe rampant cheating is undermining competitive integrity, leading to criticism of Activision's initial response.

Activision's Team Ricochet, the anti-cheat division, previously acknowledged shortcomings in its Season 1 launch, stating that Ricochet Anti-Cheat integration "did not hit the mark," especially in Ranked Play.

A recent blog post details Activision's 2025 anti-cheat strategy, revealing over 136,000 Ranked Play account bans since the mode's launch. Season 2 will introduce enhanced client-side and server-side detection systems, along with a significant kernel-level driver update. Further advancements, including a novel player authentication system designed to identify and target cheaters, are promised for Season 3 and beyond. Specific details on this new system are being withheld to prevent cheat developers from exploiting it.

A key immediate change for Season 2 is the introduction of console crossplay disabling in Ranked Play for Black Ops 6 and Warzone. This addresses the widely held belief that a significant portion of cheating originates on PC, mirroring the pre-existing ability of console players to disable crossplay in standard Multiplayer modes.

Activision stated it will closely monitor the impact of this change and consider further adjustments to maintain game integrity, promising more information closer to the feature's release.

While Activision's anti-cheat efforts are often met with skepticism, the issue of cheating remains a significant challenge for the publisher, particularly since the rise in popularity of the free-to-play Warzone in 2020. Activision has invested heavily in anti-cheat technology and legal action against cheat developers, with several recent high-profile successes.

Prior to Black Ops 6's launch, Activision aimed for sub-one-hour detection and removal of cheaters from their first match. The game launched with an updated Ricochet kernel-level driver (also applied to Warzone), incorporating new machine learning systems to rapidly detect and analyze gameplay for aimbot usage.

Activision acknowledges the sophisticated and organized nature of cheat developers, emphasizing their efforts to detect and remove these "bad actors" through the analysis of in-game data.