Call of Duty: Warzone fans are exasperated by the hackers – Polygon

Vikkstar is a content creator with over 7 million fans on YouTube, where he recently made a channel announcement: He’s quitting Call of Duty: Warzone. The battle royale game, he says, “is in the worst state it’s ever been,” to the degree that cheaters sometimes feel confident livestreaming their antics.

It’s notable because Warzone performs well for him on YouTube, and he’s also won tournaments. But apparently, the saturation of folks who use tools like aim botters is so bad that playing Warzone has become “painful,” he says during the video. The footage then goes on to showcase a match where he plays against a cheater. While he says it’s possible he may return to the game should a big update occur, he’s not the only personality currently griping about the state of the game.

The problem seems most prevalent on PC, which is why content creators like Jackfrags are currently urging their viewers to turn off crossplay. This way, fans who play on consoles don’t have to be saddled with potential hackers running illicit programs. The game will actively encourage you to keep it on, sometimes asking multiple times if you are sure you don’t wan’t crossplay.

Activision appears well aware of the issue, recently announcing a Warzone ban of 60,000 cheaters. (Activision did not immediately respond for press.)

“We have zero tolerance for cheaters,” reads a blog post detailing the publisher’s actions against rule-breakers. In the post, Activision vows to “increase our efforts” against cheaters by improving their anti-cheat software, added detection tech, and dedicating more resources to monitoring the state of the game.

“We know cheaters are constantly looking for vulnerabilities, and we continue to dedicate resources 24/7 to identify and combat cheats, including aimbots, wallhacks, trainers, stat hacks, texture hacks, leaderboard hacks, injectors, hex editors and any third party software that is used to manipulate game data or memory,” the post continues.

Ban waves have appeared periodically, with the developer clearing out thousands upon thousands of accounts — sometimes even forcing hackers to play against one another. One cheat-maker was even pushed to apologize to the community for causing “pain.” But despite these efforts, the problem apparently remains persistent enough that content creators are taking matters into their own hands.