Despite Activision’s efforts to curb cheating among some Call of Duty players, it remains an issue even in Black Ops. 6. But now, there’s potentially cause for celebration among CoD fans as Phantom Overlay, one of the most prominent cheat developers, has announced that it is shutting down.
Via Game Rant, Phantom Overlay’s Telegram channel states that it plans to “immediately” close its operations, with a caveat that it will remain online for at least another month to fulfill the 30-day keys that it has already sold players. Phantom Overlay went on to promise that anyone who bought lifetime keys would get a partial refund.
“This is not an exit scam and no external entity could ever compel me to exit scam my customers,” wrote the creator of Phantom Overlay. “I’ll keep everything updated, safe, and online for 32 days longer.”
There was no information in the post about why Phantom Overlay is closing down, and some players online are naturally skeptical. Phantom Overlay successfully monetized CoD cheats, and the creator could theoretically try again with a different company or a new alias. As noted by one user on X, Phantom Overlay’s cheats were reputed to be undetectable, while rival cheat-makers have struggled with that.
Last year, 27,000 CoD cheaters were banned in a single weekend. Activision’s Call of Duty anti-cheat program, Ricochet, shared its ambitious anti-cheat CoD plans, but Activision has previously apologized for not being able to kick cheaters out of Black Ops. 6 ranked play as quickly as promised. Activision has also sued cheat developers in the past, and successfully won a $3 million judgment against them. Regardless, the battle between Activision and the cheaters will likely continue well into the future regardless of whether Phantom Overlay makes a comeback under a new name. In the meantime, Activision has launched Call of Duty: Recon Squad to get more feedback from players.
