Cheating has become so rampant in Call of Duty: Warzone that console players are left with no choice but to turn the crossplay feature off.
In this time of lockdowns and social distancing protocols, gaming has never been more alive. In fact, the Warzone battle royale mode of Call of Duty had even reached a staggering 50 million users just a month after its release. However, it would seem as though many of those 50 million have a proclivity for cheating.
The bane of Crossplay
Because of the crossplay feature of Call of Duty: Warzone, players from around the world can finally get together in a battle royale game even if they’re using different platforms for playing. And with a battle requiring a large number of players, around 150, the crossplay feature has certainly made waiting times a lot shorter since PC players can join up with PS4 or Xbox One players.
The crossplay feature is definitely a blessing to players who have friends that use a different platform. But because the majority of the cheating occurs with PC players, the crossplay feature has certainly made things hard for console players.
The cheating epidemic
Cheating has become a big problem in Call of Duty. In fact, the game’s developer, Infinity Ward, had to ban around 70,000 players permanently after they were found to have cheated in the game.
We've now issued over 70,000 bans worldwide to protect #Warzone from cheaters. We're continuing to deploy dedicated security updates and work continues on improving in-game reporting. We'll share more details soon. We are watching. We have zero tolerance for cheaters.
— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) April 13, 2020
More than that, Activision also had to step up and warn players that the game has zero-tolerance when it comes to cheating. “We take all forms of cheating very seriously, maintaining a level and fair playing field for everyone is among our highest priorities. This is an area we have been working on heavily, but it isn’t always something we discuss publicly. We have been enforcing account bans since Day 1 of Warzone’s release,” Activision says in a blog post.
Unfortunately, because Warzone is free-to-play, it’s easy enough for banned players to create a new account and resume their cheating ways.
Disabling the crossplay feature
Disabling the crossplay feature seems like the best way to go, especially if one gets constantly killed by PC players that use absurd cheating methods. Now, cheating is also possible with consoles like the PS4 and the Xbox One. However, it is much easier done on PCs, and because of this, it is sort of widespread within that platform, and now, console players are paying for it.
Call of Duty doesn’t want players to disable crossplay
The game itself warns players not to turn off the crossplay feature and would constantly remind them to enable the feature through a pop-up window. This is because turning off crossplay would mean reducing the number of players available to battle. This means that players have to wait longer for a battle to start, taking a number of minutes with the feature turned off as opposed to the 30 second waiting time when crossplay is enabled.
For Xbox One players, turning off the feature is more complicated, and for the PC, it’s impossible. Because of this, a significant amount of players are asking Activision for solutions to counter this cheating epidemic.
Images courtesy of Call of Duty/Facebook