Activision has warned Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 players on PS4 and PS5 that a small number may see an erroneous "account banned" message that does not actually mean they have been banned. The alert appears as a side effect of recent backend updates designed to combat the hacks and cheats that have plagued the game's PS4/PS5 ports since launch, and could unsettle players who assume they have been wrongly punished.

Posting on the official Call of Duty Updates account on X, the developer explained that "some players may briefly see an account ban notice when they're removed from a match or session so our systems can correctly apply updated account data", stemming from legacy systems used by older titles rather than genuine enforcement. Players can tell the difference by trying to reconnect: if they succeed, they were not banned; if not, enforcement has genuinely been applied. Real bans are being issued to accounts found to be using unauthorised "Prestige" hacks or manipulating accounts, and arrive alongside a broader patch that also fixed mid-match lobby backfilling, input delay on 120Hz+ displays, Zombies host prioritisation and other issues.