Auto-aim cheat makers halt development after catching the eye of Activision

The developers of an auto-aim cheat tool called User Vision have torched the project at the request of Call of Duty publisher Activision.

As reported by Art Technica, an upcoming version tool would have apparently offered "full auto-aim and full auto-shots" functionalities for any PC, Xbox, or PlayStation game. Older versions, meanwhile, allowed users to take advantage of features like recoil adjustment and trigger bots. 

It looks like Activision became aware of the program after User Vision released a number of promotional videos that showed it being used in Call of Duty titles. Those videos were taken offline last week after the development team were hit with a copyright claim, and now a message posted by 'User101' on the User Vision website indicates development has been completely halted. 

In the statement, User101 claims they never intended to do anything illegal, and had been working on the software with a view to making some games more accessible. According to Ars, however, User Vision had been promoting the auto-aim feature as "undetectable [and] unstoppable," which aren't exactly words most people would use to describe software that's above board.

"At the request of Activision Publishing, Inc (Activision), I will no longer be developing or providing access to software that could be used to exploit their games. My intent was never to do anything illegal. At the end of the video that brought so much attention to this project, it stated 'coming soon.' The software was never published," wrote User101 on the now defunct User Vision website.

"This type of technology has other actual assistive benefits, for example, by pointing a webcam at yourself you could control movement without the use of limbs. Unfortunately, because of its potential negative impact I will not be developing it further."

Earlier this year, Activision said catching Call of Duty cheaters and removing their ability to create alternate accounts had become a main focus, and revealed it had issued over 475,000 permanent Call of Duty: Warzone bans since the battle royale title launched in March 2020.