The Call of Duty games have always had something of a cheater problem. This is why numerous ban waves were rolled out during the run-up to Season 2 of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone. While the removal of cheaters is otherwise something rule-abiding players are grateful for, it's a different story entirely for those on the receiving end, particularly when they haven't done anything wrong. And apparently, that's something that's been happening rather frequently as of late.
For the last several days, a seemingly new error code has been spotted by players called the Sail 360 Nuclear Bug (no relation to the nukes). What causes it is otherwise unknown, but those unfortunate enough to encounter it have not only been booted back to the menu, but have been unable to log back in, meaning they have been hit with a permanent ban.
Reddit user Korlesa is but one of the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War players to have been hit with this false perma-ban, hoping to spread awareness of it. They have conducted their own research and have learnt that at least 50 other players have been impacted by it and filed complaints to Activision. According to their findings, they have noticed some similarities that may help pinpoint the root of the problem.
Firstly, the problem appears to be unique to the PC version of the game. Secondly, the code triggers only during the Zombies mode. What's more, it always happens to players who managed to reach a high enough round, consistently occurring whenever a player reaches round 50 or higher. Basically, players who have been performing exceedingly well are being punished for it.
Korlesa claims that they have already tried speaking to Activision support for assistance but received no help whatsoever. What's worse is that developer Treyarch's own community manager, Josh Torres, has responded to the Reddit post and simply said that he is unable to assist with the issue and it's unclear if Activision and/or Treyarch is actively doing anything to fix the problem or reinstate banned players. For the time being, it might be best that PC players just avoid the Zombies mode for the time being.
The thread has been gaining traction since it was posted, with more people in the comments saying that they've experienced it too and expressing anger at Activision, accusing it of not caring about its player-base. Hopefully, this is an issue that will be resolved sooner rather than later, especially if more and more people are reporting it.
This isn't the only thing fans are upset with. The recent mid-season update brought some weapon changes and while the new buffs have been praised, some feel that some of the nerfs have done very little to stop certain weapons from being overpowered.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Reddit