Following the release of Battlefield 6’s system requirements, which demanded TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot enablement, Call of Duty Black Ops 7 has also indicated similar changes. While previously you could play Black Ops 6 multiplayer and Warzone without activating these security features, the next entry in the series will mark a change. The aim is to combat cheating by monitoring and blocking any attempt to modify files or execute unsigned code.
In their effort to fight would-be cheaters, game publishers Activision and EA plan to add new measures to their anti-cheat tool kit, leveraging the built-in security of modern hardware. Starting with Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty Black Ops 7, players will be required to enable TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) and Secure Boot in their motherboard UEFI/BIOS settings. This means that systems lacking these features won’t be able to run these games in the future. Those who already play Battlefield 2042 will be familiar with this, as it also requires Secure Boot to run its Javelin anti-cheat.
“These hardware-level protections are a key part of our anti-cheat efforts, and we’re asking all players to get compliant now,” said Call of Duty’s RICOCHET team, adding that “If your system isn’t ready, you’ll start seeing in-game notifications beginning this season.”
Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 are complementary measures. The former is the first gatekeeper, verifying the integrity of the system bootloader and kernel, while the latter ensures that nothing changes after boot using stored encryption keys. Combining both ensures a trusted chain from power-on to joining a battle, reducing the chance of low-level tampering.
In addition to Black Ops 7, Activision also plans to update Black Ops 6 and Warzone to enforce these security measures. Starting with Season 5, players will be encouraged to enable TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot in preparation for Black Ops 7. The Ricochet anti-cheat team won’t force you just yet, giving users a transition period to test if their PC is ready. Though some may be left behind due to hardware incompatibility, as long as your machine is less than 10 years old you should be fine. As a rule of thumb, if you are running Windows 11, your system likely already supports TPM 2.0.
Understandably, many players are against these deep integrations that have very high control over their machines. Aside from the potential technical glitches and slowdowns, privacy and security are also big concerns. With such deep access, some worry that this monitoring could be used to collect and build behaviour profiles that can be sold to ad suppliers. Others fear a flaw in the anti-cheat code, which would give an attacker complete system control.
To this, the RICOCHET team responded: “We know privacy is important to everyone, and we want to be clear: this process doesn’t give us access to your personal files or information. It only verifies that your system booted cleanly.” Adding that it won’t impact the in-game quality as it will remain inactive during gameplay.
Now, will this eliminate cheating in online matches? Most likely not, as cheat makers are very clever when it comes to circumventing protections. That said, it will surely make cheaters’ lives much harder. Let’s just hope honest gamers don’t get caught in the crossfire.
