Activision and EA have both announced that upcoming PC releases — Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6 — will require Windows’ Secure Boot (and in Activision’s case, TPM 2.0) in order to play. Developers say the hardware checks are meant to stop cheaters by verifying a machine boots in a trusted state; players worry about privacy, compatibility and whether this actually helps.

The fight against cheaters in PC shooters has historically been a cat-and-mouse game. Developer anti-cheat software hunts a wave of cheats, cheat makers adapt, and the cycle repeats. This year, two of the biggest franchises in the business are trying a different tack: push the anti-cheat boundary down into the machine’s firmware and hardware.

Activision’s Team RICOCHET announced in early August that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will begin a “phased rollout” of hardware-level protections — notably Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 attestation and Windows Secure Boot — and that those checks will become mandatory when Black Ops 7 ships later this year. The post and follow-ups make clear this is not a daytime, one-off change: the rollout is deliberate to give PC players time to prepare.

EA’s position is similar. The studio behind Battlefield 6 says Secure Boot is required to join the PC open beta and that its Javelin anti-cheat will lean on the same kinds of platform-level guarantees to help ensure a “Positive Play” experience. EA’s notice is explicit: if your Windows system isn’t running with Secure Boot enabled, you may be locked out of the beta.

Why TPM and Secure Boot?

At a high level, Secure Boot and TPM are designed to make sure the machine starts from trusted code. Secure Boot is a UEFI feature that prevents unsigned or tampered bootloaders and kernels from loading; TPM is a small processor on the motherboard that can securely store keys and attest whether certain bits of the system stack have been altered. Together, they give a server more confidence that the client connecting to a multiplayer match isn’t running modified system drivers or kernel-level cheats. Activision and EA argue these checks happen at boot and remain inactive during gameplay, so there’s no runtime performance hit.

The companies also frame this as an incremental, layered approach: legal action against cheat sellers, kernel-level detection, and now hardware attestation. Activision notes that no single solution ends cheating, but says TPM + Secure Boot are “a key part” of their strategy.

What players are worried about

Not everyone’s convinced — and the concerns break into three big buckets.

First, compatibility. Secure Boot has been a standard on modern motherboards for years, but there are edge cases: older machines, certain driver stacks, some Linux setups, and devices like the Steam Deck (which historically has had Secure Boot/driver limitations) can be affected. That raises the specter of a portion of the PC player base being unable to play without hardware or firmware changes.

Second, privacy and control. TPM and Secure Boot were designed for platform security, not for game enforcement, and players worry those mechanisms could be used as a hard fingerprint for bans, or to push settings they don’t want. Activision’s blog and spokespeople have pushed back on the most extreme scenarios — saying the checks do not access personal files and remain inactive during play — but skepticism persists in communities that have seen intrusive anti-cheat drivers before.

Third, effectiveness vs. convenience. Does putting checks at boot actually stop determined cheat developers? Short answer: it makes some cheat classes harder (especially kernel cheats that require unsigned drivers), but it doesn’t magically eliminate all cheating. Early reports from the Battlefield 6 open beta show cheaters still slipped through despite Secure Boot being required, which underlines the point that this is one tool among many, not a silver bullet.

A note on performance

Both Activision and independent reporting stress that Secure Boot and TPM checks run at system or game startup and then sit idle; they’re not supposed to affect in-game frame rates or latency. That’s not the same as saying no users will ever see issues — some older drivers or BIOS implementations can cause boot problems — but the companies insist in-match performance won’t suffer.

What this means for Linux, Steam Deck and console-style openness

Because Secure Boot and driver signing are tied to the Windows/UEFI ecosystem, non-Windows experiences are the awkward stepchild here. Linux users, people running custom kernels, and handhelds like the Steam Deck can face extra barriers. Valve and third-party projects have workarounds for Secure Boot, but not all are seamless, and game teams have signaled their systems will expect the PC to present a “trusted” boot state. That adds complexity to the already fragmented PC landscape.

How to get ready

If you plan to play these games on PC, here are the practical moves to make now:

• Confirm you’re running a supported Windows version (Windows 10 22H2 / Windows 11 are commonly mentioned).
• Check your motherboard/firmware for Secure Boot and TPM 2.0—enable them in the UEFI/BIOS if needed. Guides from hardware makers walk through the steps.
• Turn on two-factor authentication for your game/activision/EA account. Activision recommends it now and warns it may become mandatory later.

A shifting baseline for PC gaming

This isn’t gaming’s first migration into platform security, but it’s notable for scale: two AAA publishers coordinating on hardware-level requirements sends a strong signal that the industry sees platform attestation as a meaningful lever against cheating. That will change expectations for PCs sold to gamers and for how communities think about fairness and access.

At the same time, the reaction from players and the press so far suggests trust will be earned, not assumed. If hardware checks reduce visible cheating for everyday players without locking out significant swathes of users, publishers will claim success. If, instead, they introduce new incompatibilities or fail to impede determined cheat sellers, the move will be remembered as another well-intentioned but incomplete tactic.

Either way, the story matters because it’s no longer purely about code running in a game: it’s a conflict over what features the wider PC ecosystem should require, and who gets to decide. For now, the rollout is happening in plain sight — Season 05 dustups for Black Ops 6 and the Battlefield 6 open beta are the early proof points — and both publishers are asking PC players to be proactive about Secure Boot, TPM and account security.