Call of Duty Warzone is at risk of dying if major improvements aren’t made

Call of Duty: Warzone has managed to cement its position as one of the most popular battle royales available across PC and console. Like all other battle royales, the premise is to become the last player standing at the end of the match. Instead of Activision opting to stick with a singular battleground and update it over time, the publisher integrates the latest annual release and a range of new mechanics and weaponry for players to master. 

The integration of Black Ops 6 has been far from smooth sailing with players encountering a wealth of game-breaking bugs and glitches ruining the action. On top of the glitches, Ricochet anti-cheat has managed to miss the mark completely, with hackers infesting the battle royale across casual and competitive game modes. As a result, several content creators have expressed their frustrations and despite improvements to the anti-cheat, concerns surrounding the state of Warzone continue to spark debate.

While some players take issue with the game’s overwhelmingly ridiculous cosmetics, although they’ve yet to delve into the Skibidi Toilet trenches unlike some competitors, the core issues that affect Warzone are more important. The gameplay is suffering, and it needs to be fixed.

What needs to change?

The main issue affecting Warzone players involves the game’s flawed anti-cheat. On December 16, the team behind Ricochet admitted it had “missed the mark” following the launch of Black Ops 6 and Warzone much to the annoyance of players.

Throughout the first season, players have reported inconsistent hit registration elongating the time to kill and resulting in many accidentally ending up in the gulag. The developers claim rogue blood splatters were to blame but fans weren’t convinced.

Alongside poor hit registration, some cosmetics have also caused problems. Instead of solely changing the appearance of players, some skins have turned players invisible resulting in yet another case of pay-to-win scandal.

Ricochet says it plans on releasing further changes to reduce the amount of cheaters throughout Season 2 and Season 3 but with the third post-launch season marking the halfway point of the cycle, is it too little, too late? Furthermore, with thousands of cheaters already evading bans after years of Richochet improvements, is the tool even an effective way of stamping out wrongdoers?

With over 19,000 hackers already hit by the ban hammer, it’s clear more needs to be done to make Warzone great again. A recent blog post reveals Ricochet has now implemented hourly checks to catch anyone gaining an unfair advantage through the power of illicit hardware. 

However, there’s still little accountability compared to other big titles. For example, the just released Delta Force has been pretty decent at stamping out cheaters, which the developers labelled a “cancer” of the video game industry. Furthermore, Marvel Rivals players have discovered an extremely effective method for reporting cheaters that result in near-flawless bans. 

It turns out there are better methods out there and, as one of the biggest live service games in the industry, Call of Duty Warzone needs to step up.

Can Warzone recover?

If Raven Software and Ricochet are capable of addressing the huge infestation of cheaters ruining all areas of Warzone and fixing all of the bugs, there’s a chance the battle royale can rekindle some of the magic lost by integrating Black Ops 6 into the battle royale. The Modern Warfare 3 era of Warzone transformed the game into one of the best in the genre thanks to constant balancing changes and simple mechanics that are tricky to master. 

The arrival of Verdansk in early 2025 is the last chance saloon for Warzone. With many expected to drop into the iconic map for a trip down memory lane or to see whether the developer has addressed the problems, there’s a risk another missed step could spell disaster for Call of Duty’s free-to-play offering. 

With Microsoft constantly fielding the narrative of Black Ops 6 being the most successful game in franchise history, the lack of positivity coming from Warzone is worrying. Only time will tell if the battle royale will ever reach its peak again but in its current state, the chances are slim.

For the time being, Warzone has certainly seen better days. The next steps from Ricochet sound like a step in the right direction but with faith in the anti-cheat and the developer at an all-time low, a lot of work is needed to restore faith in the player base growing tired of encountering players with unnatural levels of accuracy or the ability to see through walls.