Updated 06/10/25: Since the publication of this article, we’ve become aware that some of Activision's anti-cheat software, ‘Ricochet’, has been held back by the developers for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 open beta.
Original Story 03/10/25: The first beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 just went live, and it’s already being overwhelmed with cheaters.
Last night, the first beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 went live.
Open to those who pre-ordered the game, this Early Access beta is running from October 2 to October 5, with another Open Beta scheduled to take place on October 5 that ends on October 8.
Advert
Well, I highly doubt those who paid to access the Early Access beta are going to be too thrilled with Activision or Microsoft, as reports of cheaters taking over the game are already pouring in– mere hours after it went live.
As detailed in an article by Dexerto's Michael Gwilliam, several clips are popping up online from people using stuff like aimhacks and see through walls cheats.
Over on Reddit, fans aren’t particularly pleased with the state of the Early Access beta, especially considering its touted anti-cheat strategy.
“Yeah the fact I got cheaters on my very first game isn't a good sign for the new and improved anti-cheat…”, commented user iV1rus0.
Advert
“Meanwhile, during their July ban wave, in which they boasted that they had caught over 50k boosters, they banned many legitimate players who were farming the battle pass in a Warzone mode (my friend received a Steam game ban for that, all it took was a rubber band on gamepad's analogs)”, replied another user.
“After people tried to contact them (via support or Better Business Bureau), they changed the terms of service so that the above was included as a basis for permanent account ban. Activision swept it under the rug, as is their custom, so they should get no sympathy from their potential customers.”
So, how is this even possible in an Early Access beta? Wouldn’t cheaters have had to at least studied the game slightly to develop cheats for it first?
Potentially, no. As others in the thread pointed out, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s anti-cheat seems to merely consist of Secure Boot and TPM 2.0.
Advert
Considering that these have been around for a while now, it seems like hackers were able to develop software that combated them fairly quickly. It also probably doesn’t help the the architecture of the game hasn’t change too much since the previous Call of Duty game.
Hopefully, Treyarch are just being lax about things in the Early Access beta so that they can spot people early and ban them before the full release.
Either way, I wouldn’t be best pleased about it if I’d paid to pre-order the game just so I could play it…
Topics: Call Of Duty, Call Of Duty Black Ops, Activision, Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, Treyarch