Call of Duty is cracking down on cheaters ahead of season 2 and the launch of ranked play with "major technology innovations" and bans on third-party devices: "Cheating can cost more than a win"

Activision is ramping up its perpetual battle against Call of Duty cheaters with significant new anti-cheat measures ahead of Black Ops 7 and Warzone season 2's launch later this week.

In a new Call of Duty blog, Activision assures players – as much as it can, anyway – that it's taking action to ensure Black Ops 7 and Warzone ranked play is as fair as possible right at launch and that cheaters are sifted out before matches even start.

"Season 02 is almost here, and our top priority is clear: launching Ranked Play with the strongest protections possible, so matches are decided by player skill, not exploits," reads the blog.

"To that end, we're focused on making sure that players in these matches are using trusted, secure systems on both console and PC. We're achieving this by investing in major technology innovations in our anti-cheat systems and our security technology stack."

Specifically, Activision says it's adding "a new suite" of detections to its kernel-level Ricochet anti-cheat system that'll help identify third-party devices like Cronus Zen and XIM Matrix, which can be used to give players machine-perfect aim, and the accounts that use them.

On top of that, Activision says Ricochet is setting "a new industry standard in security" with "a stronger form of remote, cloud-based attestation" that operates on Microsoft Azure." This added layer of security will work to authenticate accounts and weed out cheaters before matches begin, and Activision says "most" players won't need to do any settings tweaking for it to start working.

"It's the most robust attestation technology available in gaming and bringing it first to Ranked Play helps ensure competitive matches are won on merit," boasts Activision. "These added protections help stop cheating before a match even begins, so games feel fair from the start."

Of course – as the Black Ops 7 beta proved back in October – the moment that new anti-cheat protections arrive, cheaters will inevitably start looking for ways to bypass them, creating an eternal push and pull between devs and these gosh darn tricksters. The impact of cheating in ranked play is naturally much more consequential than normal modes, and that's why Activision is taking these extra measures before ranked becomes available.

"We know what an unfair match looks like: losing a close gunfight to aim that never seems to miss, recoil that never kicks, or reactions that don't feel human," it says. "In Ranked Play, cheating can cost more than a win. It impacts Skill Rating (SR), momentum in your session, and confidence in the mode."

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