Eagle-eyed Call of Duty gamers have noticed that the term ‘ARC Raiders’ is censored in Black Ops 7’s text chat. This isn’t the first time this has happened in a game, as it was called out recently that Battlefield 6’s game chat had the same issue.
We’ve reached out to Activision to get to the truth of the question of why Black Ops 7 appears to be censoring mentions of ARC Raiders. In case you’re not in the know, ARC Raiders is a third-person extraction shooter set to drop on October 30, casting players into a harsh, ruined world to fight for survival.
Why is ARC Raiders Censored in Call of Duty?
It’s not some nefarious thing, as it happens. We caught up with Activision’s PR team to get to the root of what seems like ARC Raiders censorship, which some have pegged as being some twisted corporate jealousy.
Here’s the message we received, which should set your mind at rest:
Glad you asked, it’s quite innocuous and I can provide you with the information on background.
Our text-based moderation system has ‘Arc’ set as an alt of an inappropriate word.
Paired with Raiders, the system flagged the phrase. Those filters have been adjusted.
Hilariously, Embark Studios made a tongue-in-cheek reference to this issue on social media:
While we didn’t hear what the situation was with Electronic Arts and Battlefield 6’s censorship of ARC Raiders, we can safely assume it was a similar deal.
The Black Ops 7 beta kicked off late last week and is live until Wednesday, October 8. It has been met with a mostly positive reception thus far, despite some viewership and player numbers on certain platforms taking a while to get flowing.
In a statement provided to Insider Gaming just a couple of days ago:
The Black Ops 7 Beta Early Access is already off to a great start. The early response across all platforms has been tremendous, and we’ve only just begun. We look forward to the entire community, across all platforms, coming together to experience the Open Beta beginning Sunday.
Have you been enjoying the Black Ops 7 beta? Let me know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Escape from Tarkov’s softcore changes have been revealed