Activision warns Call of Duty cheaters may be banned from “any past, present, and future titles”

Activision has warned Call of Duty cheaters that bans may now apply “franchise wide”.

In a blog post penned by “Team RICOCHET”, the new team set up by Activision to deliver anti-cheat to the Call of Duty games, a change to the company’s security enforcement policy specifically for the recently-released Call of Duty: Vanguard was highlighted:

“Extreme or repeated violations of the security policy – such as in-game cheating – may result in a permanent suspension of all accounts. Additionally, any attempt to hide, disguise, or obfuscate your identity or the identity of your hardware devices may also result in a permanent suspension.”

The interesting note comes afterwards:

“Permanent suspensions for security infractions may now apply franchise wide, including Call of Duty: Vanguard as well as any past, present, and future titles in the Call of Duty franchise.”

The suggestion here is if you’re permanently banned for cheating in a Call of Duty game, you may be permanently banned from playing all Call of Duty games already released and yet to release.

Call of Duty – and in particular Warzone – has been blighted by cheaters for some time, so there is a real desire from the community for better anti-cheat. But the idea of getting banned from playing next year’s Modern Warfare 2, the inevitable next Black Ops and god knows what else because of cheating now feels like a significant – and potentially controversial – step into a new era for Call of Duty anti-cheat.

Meanwhile, the RICOCHET anti-cheat system will soon come with a new PC kernel-level driver.

Warzone will be the first title to receive the driver, launching alongside the new Warzone Pacific update in December. The kernel-level driver hits Call of Duty: Vanguard at a later date, Activision said.

Kernel-level drivers have sparked privacy concerns because of the high level of access they’re granted to monitor and manage software and applications on PC, such as your graphics card driver. Activision has insisted its kernel-level driver operates only while playing Call of Duty: Warzone on PC.

There’s no getting away from it if you want to keep playing Warzone. Activision has said that once it’s out, the driver will be required to play the battle royale.