Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 beta already plagued by cheaters

It’s weekend two of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 beta – and now PC, PlayStation and Xbox players are all stuck in, cheaters have entered the battlefield.

And, in response, console gamers are turning off crossplay in a big way to avoid matching those on PC – the platform believed to have the most problems with pirates.

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If it looks like you’ve read this story before, it’s because the same thing happened with last year’s Call of Duty Vanguard beta and 2020’s Black Ops Cold War.

As you can see from the clip posted to Twitter by MW2 Beta Plug, cheaters use wallhacks to spot enemies before they should, and aimbots to make sure they never miss.

Clips of Modern Warfare 2 cheats are also flooding Tik-Tok – and telling users where they can buy hacks.

All of this, even before the official launch of Modern Warfare 2, and despite Activision’s much-hyped Ricochet anti-cheat software.

The issue is big enough that Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward has taken to social media to promise action.

Hacking in Modern Warfare 2 is now particularly problematic for Infinity Ward and Activision, given how forcefully it has trumpeted anti-cheat software Ricochet.

Ricochet, introduced for Battle Royale Warzone and Vanguard, features new server-side tools that monitor scans to identify cheating. Activision has also released Ricochet’s PC kernel-level anti-cheat security driver for both games.

Less than two weeks ago, Activision insisted that it had “improved and improved” Ricochet for Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0, “combining a year of #TeamRICOCHET updates with new features and mitigations for protect the game”.

Of course, no anti-cheat is perfect, and there is no single solution or policy to cheating. But Activision, which has faced a significant reputational issue due to cheating since Warzone exploded in 2020, will be desperate to prevent the same thing from happening again with Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0.

If you’re interested in playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 legitimately and are looking for help with specific weapons during the beta, we have explanations for the M16 and M4.