Activision Alludes to Anti-Cheat Improvements Coming to Warzone

Activision, the studio behind the FPS flagship franchise Call of Duty (COD), appears to have acknowledged Warzone's prolific cheating problem in a recurring statement being shown to players.

COD: Warzone players have noticed the return of an anti-cheat message on the in-game "Message of the Day" news rotation. According to other outlets, the message first began making the rounds in April 2020. Some have begun speculating that its reappearance is a sign from the developers that they've finally stepped forward to efficiently tackle the problem.

Here's everything we know about this message.

Is Activision Improving its Anti-Cheat Protection?

The latest iteration of the anti-cheat message reads, "Cheaters Not Welcome" in large blue-tinted font. "We work aggressively to keep Warzone fun AND fair," it continues, informing its playerbase of the measures in place. These allegedly include:

• 24/7 surveillance
• "ALL possible cheats [and] hacks reviewed"
• Planned improvements to in-game reporting
• "50,000+ global permabans to date"
• More updates coming soon

It also references a full statement available on Activision's Games Blog which, when found, reaffirms the original circulation date of mid-April last year. According to this statement, Warzone's security teams have issued over 70,000 permabans to the day prior to its publishing.

"Simply put there’s no place for cheating. We recognize that there’s no single solution for combating cheaters, it’s a constant enforcement every day, 24/7. Rest assured, we’re committed to ensuring a fun and fair experience for everyone." It states.

The company hasn't made many visible strides to this effect or to reassure its players outside of a singular lawsuit back in August 2020. There have been no official statements from Activision elaborating on improvements to the anti-cheat software or monitoring between this statement and the time of writing. DBLTAP cannot confirm its intentions to do so.

Cheating in Warzone is one of online gaming's worst-kept secrets. Players were quick to poke fun at Activision on a Reddit post by user SSMKh drawing attention to the message.

"Back in 2018 PUBG permanently banned over a million players in one month," wrote user jansteffen, attributing their data to a BattlEye tweet from the same period, "50k bans in warzone is fucking pathetic."

"24/7 by one unpaid intern globally," user Yellowtoblerone replied.

Several noted the lack of improvements made in the past eight months while others shared their hacking anecdotes that caused them to leave the game entirely. User my__guy recounted being eliminated by a cheater "about an hour ago" while dropping into the match. They were sniped out of the air and, upon, spectating their killer, noticed the player won with "with a 45+ kill game."

"Stopped playing after that," they wrote, "It's fucking infuriating. I have a baby boy and get very few opportunities to play and time to myself."

We likely speak on behalf of most Warzone players when we say we hope that Activision does something to stem the flow of illicit gameplay soon.