Activision ships match-security updates to Black Ops 2 on PS5

Activision has released backend updates aimed at the cheating that has affected the PlayStation port of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and says it is reviewing accounts that hold incorrect Prestige levels. Black Ops and Black Ops II arrived on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on July 9 as ports running on new servers, rather than remasters.

Dexerto reports that the Black Ops II servers have been affected by cheats that can remove players from lobbies, lock them out of changing classes, rename their custom classes, reset their account level, or push them to a Prestige rank the game does not have.

Activision's statement

Activision set out the response on August 2, including a warning that legitimate accounts may see a ban notice in passing.

Players may "briefly see an account ban notice" after being removed from a match or session, which Activision described as "a byproduct of legacy systems used by older titles" that "does not necessarily mean enforcement has been taken against the account". If the message clears and the player reconnects, the publisher said the account has been processed and no further action is needed.

Where a player cannot reconnect, Activision said the account has been identified for enforcement "based on evidence of intentionally obtaining unauthorized Prestige levels or other violations of our Terms of Service, including account manipulation".

How the problem spread

Much of the disruption was attributed by players to a single account, C Isn't Sharp, which became well enough known that streamers including BAMS left lobbies on sight of the name. Dexerto reports that other players were able to do the same thing, and that some in the community say the underlying issue has existed in the original release for years without being addressed.

ModernWarzone and others had appealed publicly to Activision, Iron Galaxy and Treyarch to act. Activision gave no timeline for completing the work, and Dexerto reports that players on the Black Ops II subreddit continued to encounter hacked lobbies that reset or inflated their rank after the updates went out.