Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 arrived on PlayStation this week, and while they're essentially just ports—without any notable quality-of-life or graphical improvements, selling the DLC separately all over again—the collection is topping the charts, even surpassing GTA 6. So, understandably, Xbox players feel a little left out, especially considering that Microsoft owns Activision Blizzard.

Of course, Xbox players can already jump into Black Ops and Black Ops 2 thanks to the backwards compatibility program, and these versions are essentially the same. That's clearly how Activision and Microsoft view things, as they made the personalization packs free on the Xbox store for parity with PlayStation. However, there's just one glaring problem—as reported by Windows Central, the Xbox servers are a minefield for hackers.

"As someone who has played Black Ops on both Xbox and PlayStation, I can confidently say Xbox players are getting completely screwed out of the reunion PlayStation players are having right now," X user Deaks posted. "The PS4/PS5 ports find games almost instantly. I haven't encountered a single hacker, and I've genuinely had an amazing time playing. Whenever I tried playing on Xbox, it could take 15–20 minutes to find a match, and when I finally found one, it was always modded. This isn't PlayStation versus Xbox. Xbox players deserve the same experience."

"My Primary Concern Is Account Security"

It's not just a matter of matchmaking wait times, ruined lobbies, or even people being deranked to negative levels (which happened to Reddit user iNEWj), but your account's safety. And you can find countless posts echoing this frustration across social media, with one thread on r/Xbox quickly amassing over 1,000 upvotes: "My primary concern is account security while playing these games. On Xbox, your account is NOT secure when playing them. On PlayStation, it will be. That's the issue. There's no reasonable way to justify that disparity."

Warnings like these were issued by the community as far back as nine years ago when the backwards compatibility program was just taking shape. Posts like u/karter0's urged players to quit the game if they ran into a hacked lobby, as scammers would allegedly promise "insane XP boosters and other temporary perks" only to disable your Activision account and demand money to restore access. "Just leave to be safe," they said. "It's not worth losing your ability to play the game."

Cheaters have run rampant on Black Ops and Black Ops 2 for nearly a decade unchecked, so while PlayStation users are enjoying a resurgence of the game, it's unfortunate that Xbox players have been left in the lurch with only one option: the old cheater-filled 360 servers. As Windows Central executive editor Jez Corden said, the server infrastructure and source code are likely "on ice", so updating the 360 versions and weeding out the hackers is harder than most would assume, which is exactly why new ports are needed. But considering that Activision and Microsoft clearly view the backwards compatible versions as one and the same, it's hard to imagine that happening anytime soon.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Like Follow Followed FPS Systems Released November 9, 2010 ESRB M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language Developer(s) Treyarch Publisher(s) Activision Engine iw Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer, Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op Franchise Call of Duty
Where to play Close

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
Genre(s) FPS Powered by Expand Collapse