- Activision confirms that Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will require TPM 2.0 and secure boot setup on PC
- Ricochet’s anti-cheat system used in recent iterations is being duplicated.
- The new Call of Duty and Battlefield games will have the same kernel-level requirements
Microsoft’s Activision to join EA Battlefield 6 in the battle of the best FPS games of 2025 once Obligations: Black Ops 7 launches on November 14 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC, and a new update for the latter may leave PC players frustrated.
As reported by TweakTown, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will have TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot requirements at launch on PC, to further boost its current Ricochet anti-cheat system used in previous versions of the franchise. This is also mandatory for Battlefield 6 players, which uses EA’s Javelin anti-cheat found in games like EA Sports FC 26.
Ricochet’s (and, frankly, EA’s Javelin) anti-cheat system has been heavily criticized by players on Obligations titles over the years, because sometimes failed to prevent hackers and cheaters from using targeting assist tools in the game, and displays false detections and bans to innocent players.
Cases of in-game hacks occur more frequently in older titles, specifically titles like Call of Duty: Warzone (where the anti-cheat system was first used), Call of Duty: Vanguardand Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (2022) and problems are still found in the new versions. These cases became evident recently in the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 beta, which Dexerto spotted, with players using wall hacks and aimbots seen on killcams.
It’s no secret that many gamers have protested against the use of kernel-level anti-cheat, considering the potential security vulnerabilities, lack of Linux support, and the cost of gaming performance. However, it seems like Activision is doubling down on its efforts to prevent cheating, but as we saw with Battlefield 6It can hurt the players more.
Analysis: I hate to say it, but I don’t think kernel-level anti-cheat will go away…
It seems like publishers (specifically EA and Activision) are stepping up attempts to prevent cheaters, which is good on paper because no one wants cheaters in games. However, this means that the possibility of Obligations either Battlefield The arrival of SteamOS diminishes further and concerns about possible system vulnerabilities (due to kernel-level access) are not going anywhere.
Fortunately, I’ve never heard of any cases where issues have arisen with kernel-level anti-cheat (at least with systems used by major publishers), in which case I’m currently more bothered by the abandonment of Linux players, especially since many gamers use portable devices with SteamOS, Bazzite, or other Linux distributions installed.
What makes matters worse is that some single-player games like Elden Ring (regardless of its cooperative element) uses kernel-level anti-cheat, and even briefly, the next Requiem of the resident evil, according to its Steam store page, before it was removed.
This is a worrying trend and I fear that the use of these anti-cheat systems could become the new normal. Maybe it already is…
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