Despite releasing just last Thursday, Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2‘s PlayStation ports are already suffering from hacked lobbies. The resurfaced Call of Duty: Black Ops exploit sees cheaters earning high amounts of XP by simply throwing grenades at themselves mid-match, a process that allows them to reach max prestige in a very short amount of time.
When the Call of Duty: Black Ops PlayStation 4 and 5 ports were first announced last month, many fans rejoiced as the only official way for PlayStation fans to play the original versions of Black Ops 1 and 2 was via the original PS3 hardware. Along with PS4 and PS5 ports being much more accessible in general, many fans hoped that these modern Black Ops iterations would manage to avoid the hacked lobbies that have become such a rampant issue in the PC, Xbox, and original PS3 versions of these iconic shooter titles.
Call of Duty: Black Ops PlayStation Port Already Plagued by Hackers
Unfortunately, Call of Duty: Black Ops‘ PlayStation ports have already had their first stroke with hackers. Over the last few days, players have reported instances of joining Ground War and Domination matches and seeing a good portion of the lobby not playing the game as intended, but instead constantly blowing themselves up with grenades. Essentially, by transferring PS4 save data to PC, editing the file’s default text, and then reuploading it, users could create a Black Ops lobby where a vast amount of XP is awarded to those who commit suicide repeatedly. This would allow players to rank all the way up to max prestige in Call of Duty: Black Ops within just a few matches.
What’s That Weapon?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
A reported side effect of these hacked Call of Duty: Black Ops lobbies is that players who eliminate those who have earned max prestige via this exploit method can have an absurd amount of XP taken away from them. In some cases, this dramatic reduction in XP has even caused the player’s rank to regress below level 1, meaning that they’re locked out of Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer altogether.
How Call of Duty: Black Ops Is Fixing its Hacker Issue
Thankfully, developer Iron Galaxy already seems to be pushing fixes for these Call of Duty: Black Ops PlayStation port issues. Over on Twitter, the official Call of Duty Updates account shared the “first phase of a fix to address an issue impacting player XP.” According to this update, Call of Duty: Black Ops playlists have been updated with a server-side fix, and any players with negative XP have had their levels reset to 20 so that they can keep playing. This update concludes with the promise that “additional mitigations will continue to roll out in future updates” to help reduce these issues.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
While this issue is one of the more severe ones affecting Call of Duty: Black Ops‘ PlayStation ports, it’s far from the only one. The PS5 versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 are still suffering from some controller lag and general performance issues, and though Iron Galaxy has since added cross-gen functionality, PS4 and PS5 players were unable to join one another’s lobbies when the game first launched.
- Released
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November 9, 2010
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Engine
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iw






Image via Treyarch
Image via Activision
Image via GameRant; Source: Treyarch / Call of Duty