Activision is throwing itself into the trenches of controversy by trying to tackle its problem with PC cheaters in Call of Duty.
It feels like the gaming giant is fighting an uphill struggle when it comes to its RICOCHET anti-cheat detecting and effectively punishing cheaters, as how many times have we seen invisible players sniping us through walls or flying across the sky like Superman?
With Call of Duty topping the chart of best-selling games year after year, it was no real surprise that 2024's Black Ops 6 took the crown after being dubbed a return to form.
Still, things aren't perfect, and as players continue to bemoan those crafty cheaters slipping through the net on PC, the developers are finally answering our prayers.
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The Black Ops 6 and Warzone season 3 patch notes confirmed that console-only crossplay was being activated, with them announcing that it's splitting off Multiplayer Ranked Play and Warzone Ranked Play settings while adding new Multiplayer-only settings for Quickplay, Featured, and Party Games matches.
Multiplayer Ranked Play, Warzone Ranked Play, and Multiplayer Unranked will have the following three options:
- On - free for all matchmaking with all gaming platforms when in selected playlists.
- On (Consoles Only) - allowing matchmaking only for other consoles when in selected playlists.
- Off - restricting matchmaking to only your current platform
We're warned that the 'Consoles Only' option might be struck with matchmaking queue times, whereas 'Off' will definitely be negatively impacted. It's been six years since 2019's Modern Warfare embedded crossplay at the core of the CoDverse, but it feels like we've been battling PC cheaters since then. Activision went as far as suggesting as much when a March 28 blog post stated: "We've found that many of these reports have been inaccurate in situations where the killing player might have had an intel advantage."
The mention of 'intel advantage' is a clear wink to the PC community. Despite 60% of those being reported for cheating playing on console, Activision admitted the majority of cheating happens on PC.
Loving the option of console-only crossplay, one gamer cheered: "I got p*ssed off the other day and switched to console only... suddenly I wasn't getting my cheeks clapped quite so hard and wasn't coming against people with Dark Aether skins and/or ridiculous stats with oddly low levels. I don't think I'll be going back to crossplay."
Another added: "As a console player, this is fantastic news. I am sure the PC queues are going to be slower which sucks for the legit PC players, but this was necessary."
Of course, not everyone is a fan, with some PC players claiming they're being penalized over the actions of a few bad actors.
One crossplay champion said: "As a PC player…. Hate this change but I get it. I hope it doesn’t affect queue times for the game in the long-run so I’m not forced to buy the game on PS5 to have a good experience."
It's true that it's easy to find examples of those who are blatantly cheating and sticking their middle finger to RICOCHET online, it's also true that Call of Duty's legacy as one of the biggest games in the world means it's likely just a fraction when compared to the whole playerbase. Even if there are a few teething problems, it's clear that console-only crossplay is going to be a hit among the CoD community...as long as you aren't a PC player.