In a few days, the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta launches on console and PC. This will be the first time players get a chance to go hands-on with the upcoming FPS. It will also be the first chance hackers and cheaters get to possibly screw up the game. And Activision not only expects that to happen, but wants it to happen.
On September 29, Activision and the team behind Call of Duty’s anti-cheat tech posted a lengthy blog about what they are doing to stop cheaters from ruining the game. As previously announced, this time around, Call of Duty players on PC will have to have Secure Boot activated on their rig to play Black Ops 7 and the upcoming beta. For most players, this shouldn’t be much of an issue as newer PCs running Windows 11 are likely to already have Secure Boot activated. But for other players planning to run the game on older PCs or rigs that don’t support Secure Boot, this could be a problem.
We saw similar issues with Battlefield 6 and its open beta, which also required Secure Boot. The idea is that this extra level of security can help stop some PC cheat tools, but some players have complained that it can be a pain to turn on Secure Boot if you aren’t experienced with messing around with your PC’s BIOS settings. Others claim it doesn’t do much to stop hackers and cheaters, and point to the fact that BF6‘s beta reportedly had cheaters in it almost immediately. Regardless, Secure Boot is needed to play Black Ops 7 and the beta. And if cheaters do try to play the BLOPS7 beta despite Secure Boot, Activision and its anti-cheat team, Team Ricochet, are waiting for them and ready to ban them forever.
“Cheaters will try to test the limits during the Beta. That’s exactly what we want because #TeamRICOCHET is here, watching, learning, and removing them as they appear,” explained the team in the previously mentioned blog post. “Any account permanently banned for cheating during the Beta will be banned across all Call of Duty titles, from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to future releases.”
The studio further explained that all of its anti-cheat tech, which includes machine learning tools and more, will also help make Activision’s free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty Warzone safer from cheaters, adding: “Everything we’re building for Black Ops 7 will also protect Call of Duty: Warzone.”
I still expect cheaters will break through Activision’s defenses and cause problems in BLOPS7‘s beta and the full game, which launches in November on consoles and PC. But it sounds like the folks building the game’s anti-cheat tools are not just ready for a fight, but actively encouraging it.
The Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta launches on all platforms on October 2 via early access. It then opens up to everyone on October 5 and ends on October 8.
