Call of Duty's latest anti-cheat tactic is simply shutting down the game

Activision has taken aim at Call of Duty cheaters in a swathe of novel and often hilarious ways over the last few years, from cutting their parachutes so they splat onto the ground in Warzone to straight up taking their guns away. The latest tactic targets those who use illicit tools to activate aim assist while playing with a mouse and keyboard.

The Ricochet anti-cheat team says that when its security detection systems spot such players, the Call of Duty app will simply close itself. No clever trick like cloning another real player from elsewhere in the match. The game will just shut down. "Repeated use of these tools may lead to further account action," the Ricochet group wrote on X. In other words, Activision will likely suspend or permanently ban persistent offenders.

As always, the idea behind this tactic is to level the playing field for everyone. Aim assist is a feature primarily designed for console or controller players to make up for the greater accuracy afforded by a mouse. While this most recent effort to frustrate bad actors won't solve all of Call of Duty's cheating problems (wallhacks still seem to be an issue), annoying cheaters into perhaps changing their habits continues to be a very funny strategy on Activision's part.