Update 10/3: Following the publication of this article, an Activision representative has reached out to Game Rant and noted that all of the accounts seen cheating in the included clips have since been banned. The original story is as follows.
Early access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta has been live for mere hours, and lobbies already appear to be infested with cheaters and hackers, despite Activision recently insisting it was working toward developing the most advanced and robust anti-cheat protections in gaming. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is the first entry in the franchise to make use of Secure Boot and Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM), but the precautionary systems clearly haven’t been enough to stop players from cheating on day one.
Late last month, Activision confirmed that it would follow in the footsteps of many other studios and require Call of Duty players to have both Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 enabled for the Black Ops 7 beta and its full release. This announcement came just weeks after EA revealed that Battlefield 6 players also needed to enable Secure Boot in their PC BIOS in order to play the open beta. The anti-cheat requirement often causes controversy among gamers, as many believe it is an intrusive feature that can conflict with certain other programs, such as single-player modding. Others, however, believe it boosts security in online games.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Is Already Filled With Cheaters
Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 were rolled out as optional features in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 5, but the anti-cheat measures are now mandatory to play the Black Ops 7 beta. However, despite the added layers of security, the shooter is already infested with cheaters and hackers on day one. Various posts have begun appearing across Twitter, as users blast the game’s Ricochet anti-cheat for failing to keep the cheaters out of the game in its first few hours. One clip, which can be seen below, shows a player utilizing wall-hacks to see enemy outlines through walls and aimbot to instantly snap to enemies’ heads.
The disappointing revelation that the next entry in the Call of Duty franchise was already infested with hackers comes just days after Activision provided some major anti-cheat updates for Black Ops 7. In a new blog post, the publisher said it was building toward the most advanced and robust anti-cheat protections in gaming, which would start with the Black Ops 7 beta on October 2. The studio went on to explain that it had trained advanced machine learning systems on millions of hours of gameplay, noting that the new upgrades are “smarter, faster, and more reliable than ever.”
Players’ lobbies being ruined by hackers isn’t the only issue Call of Duty fans have experienced in the first few hours of the beta, as some are still struggling to even get into the playtest. Those who had obtained an early access code via one of the many promotions Call of Duty is running were still being greeted with a message to pre-order Black Ops 7 to receive early access to the beta. Although Activision claims this issue has now been resolved, some players across various platforms are still receiving an error message stating they cannot access the contents of the Black Ops 7 beta.