Call of Duty Confirms 70,000 New Hardware Bans Before MW4 Launch

Call of Duty's anti-cheat division says it has already locked out tens of thousands of machines before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 even goes live.

In a series of posts published on X on September 25, the official Call of Duty account said Team RICOCHET, the franchise's in-house anti-cheat unit, has issued more than 70,000 new hardware bans that will carry directly into Modern Warfare 4 when it launches on October 23. 

"Modern Warfare 4 is almost here, and the work to protect fair play is already in motion on multiple fronts," the team wrote. "Recent enforcement updates helped Team RICOCHET issue more than 70,000 new hardware bans. Those hardware bans carry into launch."

Why Hardware Bans Are Harder To Dodge

An account ban can be sidestepped by creating a new profile. A hardware ban targets the machine itself, so a banned device stays locked out of the franchise even if the player behind it signs up with a fresh account. 

That makes the enforcement wave a more durable deterrent heading into a launch window, when publishers typically see a spike in cheat-tool use from players testing new accounts against reset leaderboards.

Team RICOCHET also detailed a second enforcement track aimed at input-modifying hardware. "We're also continuing to take on devices that modify player input to create an unfair advantage," the post continued. "Roughly 5,000 accounts have already been banned for using these devices to cheat." 

The team named Cronus Zen and XIM Matrix directly, devices that sit between a controller and a console and can script recoil control or aim assistance beyond what a human can reproduce manually. "Using Cronus Zen, XIM Matrix or similar tools to cheat is not allowed," the post said, adding that players caught cheating with them face both account and console bans.

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Legal Pressure On Device Makers

Call of Duty's statement also pointed to legal action beyond in-game bans. "Last year, we tracked down Cronus' North American distributor to a hotel in Southeast Asia and served him with a cease-and-desist," the team said, framing enforcement as extending to the supply chain, not just individual users. 

The update builds on a broader anti-cheat push the studio detailed in a September 18 blog post, in which it cited third-party research estimating the global video game cheat economy at roughly $8.5 billion a year and said it has disrupted more than 375 reseller operations and helped shut down 31 cheat vendors to date.

Modern Warfare 4 launches October 23 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC, developed by Infinity Ward. 

A clean launch matters well beyond the campaign and casual multiplayer crowd: Call of Duty underpins a major competitive circuit in the Call of Duty League, and the credibility of RICOCHET's enforcement directly affects confidence in that competitive scene, from viewers to betting sites pricing esports markets around it. 

Whether 70,000 bans are enough to keep launch lobbies clean remains to be seen, but the message to cheaters predates the servers opening.