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In its constant battle with cheaters, publisher Activision will require PC players of the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 to enable Windows Secure Boot and to utilize a system with Trusted Platform Module 2.0 technology.

Activision is going to begin testing these features in Season 5 of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone, though Activision’s Ricochet anti-cheat team “won’t be enforcing against or requiring” either just yet. It’s unclear if enforcement will begin before Black Ops 7 releases later this year.

“These hardware-level protections are a key part of our anti-cheat efforts, and we’re asking all players to get compliant now…” a blog post reads. “If your system isn’t ready, you’ll start seeing in-game notifications beginning this season.

Activision, like many developers and publishers of popular multi-player games, are in an endless battle with cheaters. But using technologies like TPM 2.0 in anti-cheat has proven unpopular before in games such as League of Legends (with its Vanguard anti-cheat), as some players worry about technical glitches, slowdowns, potential privacy issues, or simply being forced to enable security features that they don’t want.

Activision claims that TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot runs two checks: one through Windows at startup, and one on Activision”s servers to ensure there hasn’t been any tampering.

“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,” the blog reads. “It only verifies that your system booted cleanly.

Additionally, Activision claims that the security technologies “will not impact in-game quality,” and that they will “remain inactive” during gameplay.

Activision isn’t pushing 2FA as a rerquirement yet, but suggests that players should use it and that it could become. mandatory in the future. Additionalkly, players on a free trial of Game Pass on PC won’t be able to access multiplayer ranked play.

Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 6, using the company’s Javelin anti-cheat system, will also take Secure Boot into account.

The use of Secure Boot effectively limits players to Windows. That’s most PC gamers these days, though the popularity of the game will surely leave Linux and Steam Deck players looking for workarounds.