The most well-known Call of Duty hackers are only getting more efficient at ‘breaking’ each new annual title and it appears their experience with Warzone was a key factor behind their quick entry into the Vanguard Beta.
On September 16, the Vanguard Beta became available on all platforms. Within 48 hours, the first reports of hacking appeared.
As aimbots ruined matches the same day the Beta went public, players wondered, ‘How are there cheaters already?’ Soon after, these low-cost exploits were discovered, and players were able to terminate matches at will.
But how did they manage to get through Vanguard so quickly? It turns out that having prior knowledge with Modern Warfare and Warzone cheats was really beneficial.
An anonymous source in the gaming industry told Vice, “The core of the [CoD] engine hasn’t changed much during the life of the franchise,” Much of the code in Warzone, for example, is similar to that found in Vanguard, according to the source. As a result, porting exploits from one game to the next has always been simple.
This proved to be the case during Vanguard’s Beta test as hackers flooded into the early access build. They didn’t just give cheaters the usual in-game perks like aimbot and wallhacks; they went above and above, simply because they could.
According to CoD insider Tom Henderson, the Beta was launched with the same anti-cheat as Warzone. As a result, it didn’t take long for hackers to go wild. IWantCheats is one such source that appears to have a flair for the annual cycle, having developed CoD hacks for almost 15 years. This website already claims that their Vanguard adventures will be better than anything we’ve seen in Warzone.
Not only that, but their cheats are said to operate on the new Pacific map as well; a claim we’ll only be able to verify until Activision reveals more information on its highly anticipated anti-cheat system, which is set to launch later this year.
If everything goes according to plan, an effective anti-cheat system might put an end to these worries. It’s possible that the Vanguard Beta will be the last time hackers get access to CoD lobbies. If early statements from some of the most well-known cheat providers are correct, their exploits may just find a way to taint the multiplayer experience once more.