Smash-hit Call of Duty game pulled offline for millions after shock X-rated pop-ups that cause your machine to crash
Players of Call Of Duty: WWII claim a number of strange and embarrassing glitches have flashed up on the Xbox PC version.
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Gamers have shared screenshots of the apparent hack
Credit: x.com/vxunderground
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Call of Duty: WWII has is one of the more popular titles in the franchise
Credit: Activision
This includes gay pornography, insulting messages popping up in the notepad app and loading malware on their machine, according to
"I JUST GOT HACKED PLAYING WW2! EVERYONE DO NOT PLAY WW2 ON GAMEPASS!" one user wrote on X.
"Someone is trolling gamers with Notepad pop ups, PC shutdowns, and gay pornography," another claimed.
Ethical hacker group VX-Underground also noticed that affected PCs have had their background bizarrely changed to "show a prominent lawyer who Activision hired to prosecute video game cheaters".
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Call of Duty publisher Activision has taken the game offline but not confirmed whether it's related to alleged hacks.
The Sun approached Activision for comment and was referred a company post on X.
"Call of Duty: WWII on PC Microsoft Store was brought offline while we investigate reports of an issue," the firm tweeted.
Fortunately, it appears that hackers are more interested in messing with people than trying to steal bank details.
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"The concern in this particular case is that this means an attacker is capable of deploying information stealer malware, a RAT (remote administration tool), or ransomware," VX-Underground added.
LG TVs now play Xbox games even without any console after upgrade
"Thankfully, it appears this attacker is primarily interested in memeing and f**ing with people."
Call Of Duty: WWII was released back in November 2017 and a commercial success, netting $500million / £368million in revenue within three days of launching.
The issue comes just days after Activision Blizzard owner Microsoft announced huge job cuts.
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Some 1,900 people working for Activision and Xbox have been laid off, around 8 percent of the Microsoft's gaming division overall.
Mike Ybarra, who has served as Blizzard's president since 2022, has also decided to leave over the move.
Across all of Microsoft, more than 9,000 jobs have been cut globally.
Call of Duty cheating – what will get you banned?
Here's what you need to know...
There are plenty of ways to cheat on Call of Duty
Perhaps the most common hack is an aimbot – a piece of software that aims and targets enemies automatically for you
Activision also explicitly forbids the use of wallhacks, which modifies the properties of walls
For instance, wallhacking software could allow you to see enemies through walls
Typically using glitches to escape outside the normal bounds of the map is also considered to be cheating
Generally it's a case of using common sense: don't do anything that gives you an advantage that wouldn't have been intended by developers
Also, cheating on a sophisticated game like Call of Duty can be difficult – so if you're cheating, it's unlikely to have been an accident
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