Activision announces in an update that they have banned over 350,000 Call of Duty players from their games. The ban wave affects players across Activision's different Call of Duty titles. This includes Warzone, Black Ops Cold War, Modern Warfare, and COD Mobile. Activision shares that the 350,000 banned players have broken the game's rules on toxicity and racism. The company shares that they've banned “350,000 accounts for racist names or toxic behavior.” Activision shared that they deployed new in-game filters that can catch racist and toxic chats, names, and behavior.

The 350,000 banned accounts sit neatly beside the 475,000 permabans that cheaters have experienced over the past year. It's clear that Activision will not compromise the game's inclusive values and anti-cheat stance. Together, the ban counts slowly closes in to a million. However, Call of Duty developers still lags behind a bit in catching cheaters and hackers. A recent hack has been described as the worst hack Warzone has had, and so far no fix has been made yet.

Call of Duty remains to be one of the most successful game series in the gaming industry. Hence, it's only apt for the publishers to take a solid stance when it comes to inclusivity and anti-cheats. However, it's clear that there's still a lot of work to do. Activision acknowledges this and says they will be maintaining a sustained effort in keeping Call of Duty games toxicity-free.

“There’s no place for toxic behavior, hate speech or harassment of any kind in our games or our society,” says Activision. “We are focused on making positive steps forward, and together celebrating the best fans in the world.”