CoD devs crack down on Warzone cheaters again in new lobby update

CoD developers have once again cracked down on cheaters across Warzone and Modern Warfare 3, this time implementing a new update to boot them before a game even gets underway.

CoD’s cheating crisis has been raging for a number of years now. No matter how many safeguards devs at Activision introduce, pesky cheaters often find another way to circumvent them.

As the RICOCHET anticheat system has waned in efficacy this year, the dev team has been pushing more and more incremental updates to bolster its power. Now, as of August 8, 2024, there’s a new countermeasure in place to squash cheaters before they even so much as start up a match.

Lobby scraping apps are designed to give cheaters a heads-up. By analyzing lobbies before games get going, cheaters can assess the skill level of everyone else in a match. At least, that’s how it worked prior to the new update. Moving forward, RICOCHET will detect such lobby scraping tools and kick cheaters before the match even begins.

“To combat boosting and stream sniping, RICOHCET is deploying updates targeting lobby scraping apps,” an August 8 update explained. “Call of Duty will shut down for players with these apps active.”

It goes without saying, such malicious tools go against Activision’s terms of service. Thus, not only will these cheaters have their game crash, but they also risk further punishment in the form of suspensions or account bans.

Reception to the news has been overwhelmingly positive, with players and content creators alike all labeling it a “W update.” Influencers especially had been impacted by lobby-scraping tools as pesky players jumped from one lobby to another in effort to find and harass their streamer of choice.

In recent weeks, CoD players have engaged with new cheats that go above and beyond earlier hacks. Some outright bypassed Activision’s anti-cheat software, while others came as a result of Modern Warfare 3’s launch on Xbox Game Pass.