Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has a big problem and a former Activision employee knows what it’s about.
What is the biggest problem with Black Ops 6? The latest installment of Call of Duty has the same problem as most PvP shooters: tons of cheaters. After Black Ops 6 initially had a strong release and was well received by many players, the mood shifted in recent weeks.
Many players, including major content creators, are frustrated by the countless cheaters in Black Ops 6 and Warzone, taking away their enjoyment of the game. For example, the ranked mode that started on November 21 was already full of cheaters shortly after its launch.
On November 26, 2024, Activision announced that they had banned 19,000 cheaters in Black Ops 6. However, the former CoD pro “Nadeshot” called this “complete propaganda”.
A week before Christmas, Activision acknowledged that the integration of the anti-cheat system in Season 1 did not go well.
Ex-developer says CoD’s release cycle is the problem
Who is he? Justin Taylor is a former employee of Activision. He was responsible for digital marketing and customer relationship management as a Senior Director for about 4 years. He also worked in the past for WWE, Twitter, and Nike.
What does he say about the problem? Taylor writes in a post on X.com that he knows why Call of Duty has more “hacking problems” than any other game – and it is due to the franchise’s annual release cycle:
They haven’t just developed and produced a product like Apex, Fortnite, Valorant, etc., and improved it over time. So, every year you buy a new product. And by the time they’ve figured out [note from the editor: the solution to the cheating problem], a new studio comes out with a new Call of Duty.
Justin Taylor, formerly of Activision, via X.com
The cheating problem in Call of Duty is getting worse because the developers can’t react in time. As soon as they successfully counter the cheating, the focus is on the next CoD.
In the comments of his post, Taylor advises to make Call of Duty a major platform and regularly provide updates to it – rather than releasing a new Call of Duty from a different development studio every year.
However, whether the cheating problem in Call of Duty is really worse than in other games is debatable. Particularly in other competitive shooters like Counter-Strike 2 or Rainbow Six: Siege, this is an ongoing issue that they have been unable to control for years, even though there isn’t a new installment released every year.
Despite everything, CoD legend Scump, who played Call of Duty professionally for years and became a world champion, warned before the release of Black Ops 6 that Activision urgently needed to address the cheating problem, or Black Ops 6 would quickly lose many players: CoD legend warns: Player numbers for Black Ops 6 will quickly decline if Activision does not address a major issue
