Ex-CoD dev explains why cheating in Warzone & Black Ops 6 is worse than ever

A former Activision employee has spoken up and explained why cheating only appears to be getting worse across Warzone and Black Ops 6, revealing the “simple” reason is due to CoD’s annual cycle.

Despite Activision building its own RICOCHET anticheat system from the ground up for the CoD franchise, the cheating crisis has raged on. In the current era, with Black Ops 6 in focus, the issue has been further exacerbated to the point thousands of players, including high-profile streamers, are walking away.

But how exactly is the situation getting worse? Why is it that Activision’s ban waves feel ineffective? Well, according to a former member of the publishing arm, there’s a “simple” reason for it all, and it’s just what we’ve assumed for a number of years.

With each passing year, a new CoD title hits store shelves. To keep this annual cadence, Activision has three major dev teams working in rotation, with Raven, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch taking turns to lead each respective year. It’s this pipeline that’s causing the chaos, according to one former employee.

SteamDB

CoD’s player count is in rapid decline and it’s largely due to the cheating crisis.

“Simple” reason why cheating in CoD is getting worse

Former Activision employee Justin Taylor took to X (formerly Twitter) to speak up on the ongoing cheating issue in CoD. “If you want to know why CoD has so many more hacking issues than any other game, I’ll tell you. I worked at Activision for four years,” he said.

Taylor served as the Senior Director of Digital Marketing during his tenure, and from his perspective, the annual cycle is to blame.

“Super simple. You have three studios (Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, Treyarch) who don’t want to work together, who basically start from scratch on the game each year.

“They haven’t been building and making one product like Apex, Fortnite, Valorant, and improving on the product over time.

So every year you’re buying a new product. And by the time they figure it out, a new studio, with a new Call of Duty launches.”

In essence, by the time RICOCHET is updated to counter all the issues with a new CoD title, the next game is already in focus and it’s too late to make a real difference.

With Black Ops 6 though, the cheating crisis has been enough to drive even the most dedicated players away. Whether it’s enough to drive serious change at Activision, only time will tell, but everyone can see the problem is still as prevalent as ever.