If you’ve been using an unapproved, third-party input modification tool in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 you may want to consider letting it go ahead of Season 2. Team RICOCHET, the developers responsible for Call of Duty’s proprietary anti-cheat system, have revealed that changes are coming ahead of the launch of Black Ops 7’s second season and the introduction of Ranked Play.
These changes are expected to specifically target players using Cronus Zen and XIM Matrix, among other unnamed third-party devices, that alter player input to create unfair advantages.
In a new post from Team RICOCHET on the Call of Duty blog, the anti-cheat specialty team declares that launching Ranked Play “with the strongest protections possible, so matches are decided by player skill, not exploits” as a top priority ahead of the February 5 launch Season 2.
Ranked Play has traditionally posed a problem for the Call of Duty franchise in that the mode has been a hot spot for cheaters who are clamoring for the top spot on leaderboards to unlock limited operator skins, camos, and — most importantly — bragging rights.
The use of third-party hardware like the Cronus Zen and XIM Matrix has long been a thorn in the developer’s side when it comes to Call of Duty. These devices are widely available even at large box stores and other retailers, making it difficult for Activision to rely on its tried-and-true method of issuing cease and desists to cheat manufacturers.
Devices like the Cronus and XIM give PC players the ability to program in macros and other scripts that can eliminate gun recoil and exploit aim assist. The ability to modify the scripts that can be run on these devices have led some to argue that they are a useful accessibility tool that should be allowed, despite Activision’s long-standing policy against them.
With the launch of Season 2, new methods of detection will be deployed with Call of Duty’s anti-cheat system, RICOCHET, that focus on player input behavior. This is an improvement over previous detection methods, which searched for input devices alone. Details like input timing, consistency, and response patterns will allow the RICOCHET system to “distinguish between natural human play and machine modified input” according to Activision.
Unapproved input tools aren’t the only cheat in RICOCHET’s crosshairs. With the launch of Season 2, Call of Duty’s PC playerbase can expect a cloud-based remote attestation system to roll out, as well. With the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 last November, Team RICOCHET pushed TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot requirements for PC players. The team reported that those anti-cheat measures were widely successful and are now doubling down on attestation measures to circumvent would-be cheaters.
However, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot attestation could still be bypassed by determined cheaters at the system level. The new anti-cheat feature uses Microsoft Azure Attestation, a robust but fully remote and cloud-based attestation technology that counters tampering and verifies the integrity of a PC before a player ever launches into a match.
While most players won’t need to make any changes to PC settings, Activision has released a Secure Attestation Wizard to help users confirm that their gaming system is ready to go when Season 2 kicks off this week.
How do you feel about RICOCHET targeting third-party hardware like the Cronus Zen and XIM Matrix? Do you think cloud-based attestation will prevent cheaters? Let us know in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:
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