Players are getting banned from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 early access campaign

A bizarre bug seems to be keeping early-access players off of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's campaign.


Players Banned Call Of Duty Modern Warfare Early Access Campaign
Wrongful bans are par for the course when it comes to multiplayer games but it's not as common when we're talking about single-player titles.

Imagine being so good at your job of making anti-cheat software that you ban players before they even get to play multiplayer.

Surely, the RICOCHET team of Call of Duty deserves credit, right?

Kidding aside, there’s an odd bug affecting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 players.

u/Bender99342 reveals that Modern Warfare 2 has “banned” them from the single-player campaign and they get a “Connection Failed” error message while trying to access the game. The error is what players receive when they get “permanently banned” from Call of Duty. Naturally, the conclusion that most came up with is that this is a glitch. After all, how could you get banned from a single-player game? At the same time, it hints at a more worrying sign.

[deleted by user]
by inModernWarfareII

Because Modern Warfare 2’s campaign servers are online, they also support the RICOCHET anti-cheat system. This means that anyone that the system banned from the multiplayer of MW2 can’t play the single-player campaign either.

u/Bender99342 explains that they didn’t cheat and RICOCHET banned them after accessing Modern Warfare 2 on a Steam Deck. They believe that RICOCHET detected the League of Legends Blitz app as a potential risk.

At the end of the day, it’s a complicated situation. Ideally, Activision Blizzard or Infinity Ward will provide an update and explain what might have gone wrong. If not, then we’ll have to wait and see if the number of people getting banned from the single-player campaign will increase until MW2’s full launch on Friday.

Players Banned Call Of Duty Modern Warfare Early Access Campaign
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 isn’t scheduled to launch for everyone else until the 28th.

In other Call of Duty news, Microsoft just revealed that the existing deal between Activision Blizzard and Sony will keep Call of Duty off of the Game Pass for quite some time. Finally, Infinity Ward expressed its interest in making a spin-off featuring the fan-favorite character, Simon “Ghost” Riley.

Ray Ampoloquio
Ray Ampoloquio // Articles: 7186
With over 20 years of gaming experience and technical expertise building computers, I provide trusted coverage and analysis of gaming hardware, software, upcoming titles, and broader entertainment trends. // Full Bio