Call of Duty's new anti-cheat efforts make cheaters hallucinate

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Devs will also use hallucinations to uncover cheaters

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

Call of Duty's latest anti-cheating efforts will see cheaters hallucinate players in online matches.

Yesterday on June 29, Activision's Team Ricochet anti-cheating taskforce shared an update on their efforts to combat disingenuous players. At some point in the near future, identified cheaters will start hallucinating players who aren't really there in online games.

The hallucinations aren't visible to any other players in the game, thankfully, or that'd sort of defeat the whole point. These new creations are based on player-generated data from others in that same match, so the hallucinations hopefully look and act just like actual players, enough to fool the cheaters. 

Call of Duty's Team Ricochet can place a hallucination near a player they suspect of cheating at any point. If the cheater reacts to the hallucination, they've basically copped to being a cheater in front of the anti-cheating taskforce, and can probably expect a swift ban.

It's really important to remember that genuine players can't interact with, or see, the hallucinations. Nothing about the new creation from Team Ricochet can impact a genuine player's experience or gameplay, and here's hoping that pledge from the developers proves true at launch.

This all comes after developer Treyarch admitted earlier this year in April that anti-cheat progress "may not be enough for players." The admission was well before this new effort was ever disclosed to the player base, so we can only hope the hallucinations have given the anti-cheat efforts the shot in the arm it needs.

Activision announced earlier this month that the original Warzone would be shutting down later this year, and players are up in arms over the decision.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.