Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is holding an online beta test until October 8, so fans can play the online modes before the full game launches on November 14. Some players are having matchmaking issues, but I suppose identifying such issues is the whole point of betas, so that’s not too surprising. What is surprising, however, is that players were reporting earlier that Black Ops 7’s in-game text chat was censoring the name of another shooter launching soon. No, it’s not direct competitor Battlefield 6. It’s Arc Raiders, the upcoming extraction shooter from Embark Studios.
Players were reporting earlier today (thanks, Eurogamer) that if you sent “Arc Raiders” in the Black Ops 7 beta’s text chat, the message that would actually pop up would just be a series of asterisks. According to those who tested it, the words “Arc” and “Raiders,” individually, seemed to get through the moderation system just fine. It was only when they were put together in that order that a switch flipped. Battlefield 6, arguably Call of Duty’s biggest competitor, didn’t seem to be affected, even after taking shots at the military shooter in a recent ad.
However, Kotaku has verified that this has since been patched out. I downloaded the beta myself. That was 52GB installed on my scalding hot gamer laptop just to type another game’s name into chat to see what happened.
Arc Raiders isn’t the type of game I would have expected Activision to view as a competitor or threat to Call of Duty. It’s a science fiction extraction shooter in which, sure, you point and shoot at things, so maybe that was enough in someone’s eyes at Activision? I’m now curious what other games could be crossed out in Black Ops 7’s backend. Embark Studios also made another shooter, The Finals, so it’s not like it’s a bright-eyed newcomer to making video games, but it’s still an odd target for Activision to hone in on. They’re not the only ones, as Battlefield publisher EA was also censoring the game’s name in its apps. What are y’all so scared of? Could it be an error? We’ve reached out to Activision and Embark Studios about the situation and will update this story if we hear back.
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