Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 patch notes detail changes to "combat disruptive behaviour"

Ricochet anti-cheat takes aim at AFK players, VPN usage.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is clamping down on what it calls "disruptive behaviour" - specifically, players going AFK to boost account levels without playing, or playing on alternative servers via VPNs.

The franchise's Ricochet Anti-Cheat technology has been tuned to better detect AFK players who load into matches simply to gather XP without any intention of playing, disrupting team balance and infuriating team mates.

Anyone looking to unlock Ranked Play will now need to win 50 match-made multiplayer matches before doing so, in order to ensure Ranked players are at the correct skill level (presumably, to give less experienced players a chance to improve but also stop sweaty veterans making fresh accounts that get matched with newbies).

Interestingly, this change is also designed to give Ricochet a cache of match history data to "examine", with top players further looked into via a Replay Investigation Tool to ensure everyone's playing by the rules.

These updates will also apply to Ranked Play when it arrives in Call of Duty Warzone, patch notes state.

Yesterday we took a look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Season 1 battle pass, which includes a parasite skin and what looks like a rip-off of Rocket Raccoon.

Call of Duty Warzone and Black Ops 6 Season 1 launches today at 5pm UK time.

"For a series built on high-octane thrills and explosive gratification, its withdrawal to the well-trodden formula echoes the wider industry's continued allergy to risk," Chris Tapsell wrote in Eurogamer's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 review.