Call of Duty Black Ops PS4 & PS5 Ports Plagued by Hackers
▼ Summary
– Activision released PS4 and PS5 ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 for $40, without paid DLC or quality-of-life improvements.
– Players are encountering hackers and cheaters in these ports, who use exploits like modifying save data to gain massive XP and reach max rank.
– A worse exploit causes players who kill hacked users to receive negative XP, softlocking them out of multiplayer access.
– Activision has disabled some playlists in Black Ops to investigate these issues, including modes like Domination and Ground War.
– The hacks and cheats are inherited from the original PS3 versions, and players doubt fixes will come, as Xbox 360 versions remain broken.
Last week, Activision launched Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 on PlayStation 4 and PS5, priced at $40 each. These ports exclude paid DLC maps and lack any quality-of-life upgrades, yet they still attracted a wave of eager buyers. However, players jumping back into these classic shooters are quickly discovering that hackers and cheaters have infiltrated matches, using exploits to dominate lobbies or instantly max out their ranks. The situation has grown so severe that Activision has already disabled certain playlists to curb the chaos.
On July 9, following leaks and an official confirmation from Activision, both games finally hit Sony’s modern consoles. While Xbox users had enjoyed backward compatibility with these titles for years, PlayStation owners were left waiting. Now, the nostalgia-driven rush to play 2010’s Black Ops or its 2012 successor has been overshadowed by rampant cheating. These new releases appear to be lightly tweaked versions of the original PS3 games, inheriting the same vulnerabilities that have plagued the older editions for over a decade.
Across Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube, players are sharing stories of lobbies overrun by cheaters. A common tactic involves modifying PS4 save data to trigger massive XP gains. In Domination matches, for instance, players repeatedly blow themselves up with grenades at spawn, flooding the kill feed and causing matches to pause, reconnect to a new host, or simply collapse. When new players join, they often repeat the exploit, making the experience unplayable for anyone seeking a fair fight.
An even more damaging exploit involves negative XP. If a player kills a hacked opponent, they can receive a massive penalty, locking them at negative level one. Since matchmaking requires at least level one, this effectively softlocks them out of multiplayer entirely. One Reddit user lamented, “Part of me was afraid this was gonna happen. Another massive L for CoD.” Another added, “6 games in a row unplayable… Ground war and domination is ruined.”
On July 13, Activision acknowledged the issue, tweeting that select playlists in Black Ops had been disabled while they investigate. Likely targeted are Domination and the large-scale Ground War mode, both reportedly vulnerable to exploits. Frustratingly, as veteran players point out, these same hacks and cheats have haunted the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions for years. Many feared these bare-bones ports would inherit the same problems, and those fears have been realized. While some hold out hope for fixes, others note that the Xbox 360 versions remain broken to this day, even on modern Xbox hardware.
(Source: Kotaku)