Call of Duty’s senior director of game security, David Andrews, has detailed why Activision uses shadow bans—internally known as limited matchmaking—instead of immediate permanent bans for suspected cheaters. In an exclusive interview with IGN, Andrews explained that the approach serves as a protective stopgap while the Ricochet anti-cheat system completes its review process.
Why Shadow Bans Replace Instant Permanent Bans
Andrews described limited matchmaking as a critical isolation tool. “We have limited matchmaking that we will put a suspicious account into to isolate them while other checks are either running or we’re waiting on other data,” said Andrews. “We’re kind of doing this review process of looking at that account more holistically and seeing what’s really going on here. It’s kind of this stopgap measure to immediately remove them without making it be permanent [or without creating] irrevocable impact to that account and to that player, giving us some breathing room to figure out what is going on with this account and then either restoring them to the player population because it was kind of a false alarm situation.”
This method addresses a persistent friction point in anti-cheat enforcement: false positives. By quarantining suspicious accounts rather than banning them outright, Activision preserves the ability to reverse errors without permanent damage to a player’s standing.
A Tiered Enforcement Strategy
Beyond shadow bans, Andrews outlined a spectrum of enforcement tools tailored to specific cheating behaviors. “We have also done some rehabilitation through the limited matchmaking saying, ‘Hey, you can’t do that behavior that you’ve just been engaged in and you can come back if you stop,’ or whatever. We have a lot of enforcement capabilities. We have limited matchmaking, we have ranked play bans, we’ve got remote play bans, we’ve got temporary and permanent account suspensions, we’ve got hardware bans. We can do all kinds of things, and each time we’re dealing with a particular style or type of cheating, we’re sort of evaluating which one of these kind of makes sense for this group of cheaters. Can they be rehabilitated? Are we ultimately 100% confident in this? Is more research required? Whatever the case might be, we’ll figure out what to do that’s appropriate.”
The tiered system allows the security team to match the response to the offense, offering a path back for some offenders while escalating to hardware bans for persistent or sophisticated cheat developers.
Ricochet Tested in Modern Warfare 4 Beta
The interview comes as Infinity Ward prepares to launch Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 next month. The studio recently stress-tested Ricochet’s implementation during the game’s beta period. That test produced at least one high-profile false positive when a former professional player was accidentally banned—a mistake the Call of Duty communications team acknowledged and corrected.
Ongoing Battle Against Cheat Developers
Call of Duty’s free-to-play battle royale, Warzone, has long struggled with a cheating reputation. Activision has responded with significant investment in anti-cheat technology and legal action against cheat sellers. Despite these efforts, Andrews’ comments underscore that the war on cheaters remains an evolving challenge requiring both automated detection and human review.
