Since the launch of Call of Duty: Warzone last year, Activision has been fighting a losing battle against cheaters. In recent months, however, the company has hinted at a new and improved solution for anti-cheating on PCs, and on Wednesday we got to see what it is all about.
The new solution for anti-cheating in Call of Duty is called Ricochet. (Video: Activision)
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The program is called Ricochet Anti-Cheat, and it will be rolled out gradually to Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Vanguard – but not Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
Via their websites Activision explains that Ricochet tackles cheating in several ways. Among other things, new tools are implemented on the servers, which constantly analyze what is going on and which hunt for unregulated gaming.
Controversial solution
An important part of Ricochet is a so-called “kernel-level driver”. This operates at the core level of the operating system, and monitors all of both hardware and software to check that there is nothing that potentially creates malfunction in Call of Duty.
This more aggressive solution is also used by other games, but is debated among fans. For example Riot Games got a lot of pepper when the developer implemented it in Valorant.
Unlike the Riot variant, Activision does promise that the system only runs while you play, not otherwise.
– When the “kernel-level” driver is first rolled out in Call of Duty: Warzone, it will only be active when playing on a PC. It’s not always on. The program turns on when you fire up Call of Duty: Warzone and turns off when you close the game. In addition, the driver will only monitor and report activity related to Call of Duty.
As the quote suggests, this particular piece of Ricochet first comes to Call of Duty: Warzone, in conjunction with the launch of the game’s next map. According to the plan, it will then be introduced to Call of Duty: Vanguard later this year. You can read more about Ricochet on Activision’s website.
We’ve tested Call of Duty: Vanguard.
Read our sneak peek at the shooter »
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