The recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 PlayStation 4 and 5 ports continue to get new updates, which is great news for the millions who caused the game to shoot up PlayStation’s most-played charts.
Though the ports have many technical shortcomings, one issue in particular has been a sticking point, and it is related to the game’s server security. Immediately at launch, players were exposed to the hacks and cheats plaguing the PS3 and Xbox 360 originals, but Activision has been making headway into preventing those exploits from ruining the experience in the newer versions of the games.
The most recent update is especially notable as it may scare legitimate players. As the developer noted on the official Call of Duty Updates account on X, you may briefly see a message saying you’ve been banned. This is an unfortunate side effect of some backend updates recently introduced to improve match integrity.
“While this work is underway, some players may briefly see an account ban notice when they’re removed from a match or session so our systems can correctly apply updated account data,” the X post reads. “This is a byproduct of legacy systems used by older titles and does not necessarily mean enforcement has been taken against the account.”
As shared by users on X, the “updated account data” message could look something like this.
So how can you actually tell if you’ve been banned? The answer is simple: if you’re able to reconnect after getting that message, you’re fine. If not, then you know you’ve been banned.
As the post adds, Activision is banning players whose accounts “[have] been identified for enforcement based on evidence of intentionally obtaining unauthorized Prestige levels or other violations of our terms of service, including account manipulation.”
Prestige-related hacks have been the most popular in Black Ops 2. Through them, hackers are able to modify a lobby so that anyone reaches Max Prestige – the highest level in the game – simply by joining. This can trigger various problems for players on the receiving end, not least of which that it robs them of the experience of gaining those levels legitimately. Other hacks can instead de-rank rival players, locking them out of game features and causing them to lose out on using previously-unlocked weapons and such.
That and other security-related issues have received special attention in recent patches. Last week, the game got a fairly sizeable patch that addressed well-publicised issues like lobbies sometimes failing to bring in new players mid-match, and the especially noticeable input delay when using a 120Hz+ display.
Here’s the full change log for the most recent patch:
- Improved mid-match lobby backfilling.
- Reduced input delay for 120Hz+ displays.
- Zombies matches will now prioritize PS5 hosts and no longer fall back to PS4 hosts.
- Smoke grenade VFX fix.
- Added a toggle to view or hide other players’ custom emblems in the Multiplayer options menu. By default, custom emblems remain visible.
