Tech Talk

Cheaters in Warzone and Vanguard are in for a rude awakening, as developer Activision rolls out a new update to the games’ anti-cheat software.

Anyone who’s caught cheating in Warzone or Call of Duty: Vanguard will now face the wrath of Activision’s latest ironic anti-cheating mitigation tactic, Disarm. As described in a blog post, the new system does exactly what its name suggests: removing cheaters’ weapons mid-match to leave them totally defenseless.

Cheaters won’t even be able to punch with their fists, as Activision says removing all their offensive capabilities it’s an effective way of putting them “in time out”. By letting cheaters remain in the match but making it virtually unplayable for them, the pesky hackers are given a taste of their own bitter medicine.

It also makes unscrupulous players easy targets for legitimate players, who can pick up an easy kill while the cheaters are running around confused and helpless. If you spot an enemy player who seems a little too skillful, before they suddenly lose all their weapons, there’s a good chance you’ve run across a casualty of the new Disarm system.

 Playful punishment 

Activision has rolled out a couple of other ironic anti-cheat measures in Call of Duty. Through a cloaking system, any player who’s found to be cheating will no longer be able to see their opponents, and enemy sounds will be totally undetectable. Honest players, meanwhile, will see the cheaters as normal, letting them nab a quick kill.

A Damage Shield system was also introduced earlier in the year. That technique dramatically reduces the damage of cheaters’ bullets and prevents them from inflicting critical damage to opposing players. Again, it’s been designed to confuse cheaters, while letting legitimate players get the better of them.

Activision says these anti-cheat systems haven’t only been developed because they’re funny. By allowing cheaters to remain in the game while crippling their impact, Activision can gather more data about the hacks. It also lets them ruin their fun.

“Cheaters, for some reason, feel superior using software to win games they have no business winning,” the blog post says. “Hitting them with mitigations transforms those euphoric feelings of being fake-best into glorious pangs of annoyance. We’ve seen the clips.”

The poetic justice will continue. Call of Duty’s Ricochet anti-cheat system will be making its way to Warzone 2 when it launches later in the year.