Call of Duty Warzone & Vanguard RICOCHET Anti-Cheat: Release Date and Details

Activision recently announced the RICOCHET Anti-Cheat for Call of Duty games like Warzone. RICOCHET is a robust anti-cheat system focused on fighting unfair play across Call of Duty games. The anti-cheat is a multi-faceted approach to combat cheating, featuring new server-side tools which monitor analytics to identify cheating, enhanced investigation processes to stamp out cheaters, updates to strengthen account security, and more. The new kernel-level driver will be coming first to Call of Duty: Warzone. RICOCHET Anti-Cheat’s backend anti-cheat security features will launch alongside Call of Duty: Vanguard, and later this year with the Pacific update coming to Call of Duty: Warzone.

When is RICOCHET Anti-Cheat and Call of Duty: Vanguard coming out?

RICOCHET Anti-Cheat is arriving on Day 1 of Warzone’s Pacific Update later this year with Call of Duty: Vanguard expected to release on November 5, 2021.

What is RICOCHET Anti-Cheat?

RICOCHET Anti-Cheat is an attempt by Activision to bring a higher level of security to Call of Duty, bringing server enhancements to Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone. Later this year launching first in Warzone is a new kernel-level driver on PC. The driver will be integrated into Call of Duty: Vanguard at a later date.

Kernel-level drivers are given a high level of access to monitor and manage software and applications on a PC, such as your PC’s graphics card driver. The system will check the software and applications that attempt to interact and manipulate Call of Duty: Warzone, providing the overall security team more data to bolster security. Once the kernel-level driver is deployed; it will be required to play Warzone.

In its initial rollout on Call of Duty: Warzone, the kernel-level driver will only operate when you play the game on PC. The driver is not always-on. The software turns on when you start Call of Duty: Warzone and shuts down when you close the game. The kernel-level driver also only monitors and reports activity related to Call of Duty.