Activision Blizzard have taken action against another Modern Warfare and Warzone marketplace for cheats, this time shutting down the hub for hackers.
It’s no secret that hacking/cheating is arguably the biggest issue Activision have faced following the release of Modern Warfare and especially since Warzone made its debut in March. The CoD publisher has been cracking down on outlets that supply programs or any other third-party tools to get a competitive edge.
Back in August, they reportedly filed a lawsuit against a different site, and now they’re taking aim at a second site. Dexerto won’t be naming the company to avoid any potential promotion, but the screencap below shows that the creator and distributor of hacks was given a Cease & Desist by Activision’s lawyers.
“In September 2020, Activision Blizzard’s attorneys had another Cease and Desist letter hand-delivered to me by who I assume was a (Personal Investigator), considering he knew family members by name and made a point to showcase that he did,” the seller of the cheats wrote.
Soon after the initial contact, the distributor said they received a follow-up communication from them claiming their attorneys “would litigate if (they) didn’t comply with continuation of stopped sales as well as a complete stoppage of interaction with and updating of any products related to their client’s products.”
It didn’t take long for them to comply with the orders to avoid further actions from the $13 billion company. Although the hack-seller said that they will “be looking to offer swaps from this product to other options in the extremely near future,” an indication that the cheat-network could be used for another title.
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The site’s owner had their infrastructure of hacks and clients willing to purchase them for 11 months before Activision stepped in to shut it down.
In late August, a different Warzone hacking site claimed the Call of Duty publisher had also contacted them about a potential lawsuit if the third-party tools weren’t taken down.
Parallels in both instances have amounted to the publisher threatening legal ramifications, the site owner taking down the hacking market, and multiple customers who bought MW cheats feeling dismayed while demanding refunds.
With Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War on the horizon, Activision are making strides in thwarting people from acquiring these sort of hacks, especially since both the official professional and amateur competitive scenes will involve the use of PC for the first time in 2021.
Competitive players are concerned the addition of PC crossplay in the amateur Challengers division will compromise the scene’s integrity since it’s a lot easier to install and use these sorts of third-party hacks on a computer rather than console.
That’s exactly been the case in Warzone (which supports PC/PS4/Xbox One crossplay) – despite months of negative community feedback and everything Activision have tried, cheating continues to run rampant on Verdansk. Hopefully this shutdown of a hack distributor will be another step closer to finally eradicating those who break the rules.