What you need to know
- Infinity Ward, the developer behind Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, has outlined new anti-cheater measures deployed across Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
- New backend changes aim to curb cheating, while "suspected cheaters" will be matched together to reduce their impact on broader gameplay.
Call of Duty: Warzone has faced a growing wave of cheaters as late, with public outcry over their prevalence across the free-to-play battle royale in recent weeks. The cross-platform nature of Warzone has accelerated its spread, with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, traditionally segregated from other platforms, facing a growing crowd of PC cheaters. It has even pushed some console Warzone players to disable cross-play, awaiting further action from the developer, Infinity Ward.
Infinity Ward has now outlined new measures to combat the impact of cheaters, recently rolled out to Warzone and sister title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. That includes "additional dedicated security measures" and increasing resources behind the scenes, accompanied by several player-facing features to ease player frustrations.
Upon confirming a cheater, both Warzone and Modern Warfare continue to issue player bans, joining the tens of thousands axed through prior audits. For those who report suspected cheater, Infinity Ward will now follow up with an in-game notification upon a ban, confirming when further action is taken. Call of Duty also amusingly punishes cheaters through matchmaking, attempting to pair suspects together across multiplayer modes.
Infinity Ward also plans to introduce "report-a-player functionality," via its killcam and spectator modes at a later date, providing an additional avenue to highlight suspicious activity.
The measures should be welcomed by Warzone's multi-million player base, among the fastest-growing across Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. The new systems follow several past efforts to curb the impact of cheating — an issue all too common in modern multiplayer gaming.
Times have changed
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare raises the stakes once again. Infinity Ward brings a raw and provocative take on the first-person shooter, shining a gritty light on the changing nature of modern combat.
