CoD updates its anti-cheat policy: players can now be banned from the entire franchise

Players found cheating in Call of Duty games may now find themselves banned from the entire franchise, including all previous games and titles yet to be released.

In a new blog on the Call of Duty website, the series’ anti-cheat department Team Ricochet posted an update on its security measures and the continued upgrade of its Ricochet anti-cheat technology.

Past of this includes changes which have been made to the security enforcement policy for Vanguard, which now states that extreme cases of cheating can lead to permanent bans that reach beyond just the specific title that was being played.

The updated text now reads: “Permanent suspensions are lasting and final, and can apply across this title and past, present, or future titles in the Call of Duty franchise.”

In the blog, the studio explains that permanent suspensions like this will only be given for “extreme or repeated violations of the security policy, such as in-game cheating”. It can also be applied to players who “attempt to hide, disguise, or obfuscate [their] identity or the identity of [their] hardware devices”.

There are still some situations where players will instead be given temporary suspensions, which “can range from 48 hours to two weeks or longer, depending on the severity of the infraction”, but will then return players to the game.

“All our anti-cheat efforts are focused on fighting unfair play and protecting the player experience,” reads the blog post.

“Launching the server updates as part of the Ricochet Anti-Cheat system is the first step in our new anti-cheat security initiative and we’re working hard to make things as frustrating as possible for cheaters.”

Plans for the new anti-cheat system were first revealed in August as part of Call of Duty: Vanguard’s announcement.

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Activision said last month: “The Ricochet Anti-Cheat initiative is a multi-faceted approach to combat cheating, featuring new server-side tools which monitor analytics to identify cheating, enhanced investigation processes to stamp out cheaters, updates to strengthen account security, and more.

“In addition to server enhancements coming with Ricochet Anti-Cheat is the launch of a new PC kernel-level driver, developed internally for the Call of Duty franchise, and launching first for Call of Duty: Warzone.

“This driver will assist in the identification of cheaters, reinforcing and strengthening the overall server security. The kernel-level driver launches alongside the Pacific update for Warzone later this year.”