Call of Duty Warzone (and Modern Warfare) cheaters are going to find themselves in for a more fair unfair fight. Infinity Ward is now matching suspected cheaters in lobbies with each other, so those players who just want a clean game of battle royale, Plunder, or Modern Warfare’s various multiplayer playlists don’t have to deal with aimbots and other shenanigans that take away the fun. Infinity Ward is also going to be improving reporting mechanisms, adding them directly to the killcam and spectator modes so players can more easily report cheats. And if action is taken against a player you reported, you’ll receive confirmation in-game, which goes a long way in making the reporting tool feel like more than a placebo.
— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) April 22, 2020
Infinity Ward also “deployed additional dedicated security updates” and “increased resources” for the backend tech teams working to prevent and catch cheaters. Given that the free-to-play Call of Duty already has more than 50 million players, the studio clearly wants to ensure that the experience isn’t spoiled by people using hacks and cheats to get a leg up. Just last week, they banned more than 70,000 accounts for cheating. And even if action hasn’t been taken against suspected cheaters, matchmaking will at least put those under suspicion in queues together, which should clean up a lot of the games that console players are in.
If there’s one downside to cross-play, it’s that console players have to deal with PC cheaters that they don’t usually see on console. Overcoming cheating in PC games is a constant battle of one-upmanship, as both the cheat makers and game developers strive to stay ahead of each other. Recently, Warzone players on console were even going as far as turning off cross-play matchmaking to avoid the rampant PC cheaters. With these new measures in place, Infinity Ward is trying to reignite the luster that cross-play once had before the console experience was tainted with PC-based cheats and hacks. The developer’s focus on fair and fun games in Call of Duty Modern Warfare (and by extension, Warzone) will continue. Meanwhile, you can rest happy knowing aim botters and hackers are getting a taste of their own medicine.
