Activision unveils ‘RICOCHET’ anti-cheat coming to Call of Duty: Warzone and Vanguard later this year

It's been a long time coming.

Image via Activision

After months of cheaters running rampant in Call of Duty: Warzone and other franchise entries, Activision has unveiled its upcoming anti-cheat system dubbed “RICOCHET.”

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RICOCHET is an anti-cheat system developed internally by Activision specifically for CoD. It “will assist in the identification of cheaters, reinforcing and strengthening the overall server security.” It will launch alongside the Pacific update coming to Warzone by the end of 2021 and come to Vanguard eventually, too. RICOCHET will bring “a broad enhancement to the security” of CoD, as well as a “kernel-level driver” for Warzone on PC.

“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,” Activision said. “RICOCHET Anti-Cheat’s backend anti-cheat security features will launch alongside Call of Duty: Vanguard, and later this year with the Pacific update coming to Call of Duty: Warzone.”

The kernel-level driver will release on PC and not console, but “by extension, console players playing via cross-play against players on PC will also stand to benefit,” Activision said. By its nature, the driver will “check the software and applications that attempt to interact and manipulate Call of Duty: Warzone, providing the overall security team more data to bolster security.”

Warzone specifically has been a harsh target for cheaters, likely due to its free-to-play nature. Activision has issued hardware bans and numerous ban waves in the past, but it’s only stemmed the tide of hackers cheating in-game. This new, extra step should be the largest salvo fired yet in the war against cheaters.

You can read more about RICOCHET on Call of Duty’s website.

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Scott Duwe
Senior Staff Writer & Call of Duty lead. Professional writer for over 10 years. Lover of all things Marvel, Destiny 2, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, and more. Previous bylines include PC Gamer, Red Bull Esports, Fanbyte, and Esports Nation. DogDad to corgis Yogi and Mickey, sports fan (NY Yankees, NY Jets, NY Rangers, NY Knicks), Paramore fanatic, cardio enthusiast.