Activision addresses $8.5 billion cheating industry and Modern Warfare 4 updates

Activision has released several updates regarding the upcoming launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and changes to the Warzone ecosystem. The publisher revealed that the video game cheating industry is a massive economy valued at approximately $8.5 billion, involving a complex network of resellers, rebranded tools, and illicit accounts.

To combat this, Team RICOCHET has issued over 70,000 hardware bans that will carry over into the new game's launch. The anti-cheat measures also target hardware devices like Cronus Zen and XIM Matrix that modify player input to provide unfair advantages, resulting in roughly 5,000 account bans.

Additionally, Activision clarified a change to in-game cosmetics. While Operator skins, skins, and weapon blueprints from legacy titles like Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops 6, and Black Ops 7 will remain available in Warzone, weapon camos from older games will not carry over. Instead, legacy weapons will feature a five-attachment version unlockable via the Armory.