Call of Duty® Takes Aim at Voice Chat Toxicity

SANTA MONICA, Calif.—August 30, 2023—Call of Duty is taking the next leap forward in its commitment to combat toxic and disruptive behavior with in-game voice chat moderation beginning with the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III this November 10^th. Activision will team with Modulate to deliver global real-time voice chat moderation, at-scale, starting with this fall’s upcoming Call of Duty blockbuster.

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Call of Duty’s new voice chat moderation system utilizes ToxMod, the AI-Powered voice chat moderation technology from Modulate, to identify in real-time and enforce against toxic speech—including hate speech, discriminatory language, harassment and more. This new development will bolster the ongoing moderation systems led by the Call of Duty anti-toxicity team, which includes text-based filtering across 14 languages for in-game text (chat and usernames) as well as a robust in-game player reporting system.

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“There’s no place for disruptive behavior or harassment in games ever. Tackling disruptive voice chat particularly has long been an extraordinary challenge across gaming. With this collaboration, we are now bringing Modulate’s state of the art machine learning technology that can scale in real-time for a global level of enforcement,” said Michael Vance, Chief Technology Officer, Activision. “This is a critical step forward to creating and maintaining a fun, fair and welcoming experience for all players.”

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An initial beta rollout of the voice chat moderation technology will begin in North America on August 30 inside the existing games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone™, to be followed by a full worldwide release (excluding Asia) timed to Modern Warfare III on November 10^th. Support will begin in English with additional languages to follow at a later date.

"We're enormously excited to team with Activision to push forward the cutting edge of trust and safety," said Mike Pappas, CEO at Modulate. “This is a big step forward in supporting a player community the size and scale of Call of Duty, and further reinforces Activision’s ongoing commitment to lead in this effort.”

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Since the launch of Modern Warfare II, Call of Duty’s existing anti-toxicity moderation has restricted voice and/or text chat to over 1 million accounts detected to have violated the Call of Duty Code of Conduct. Consistently updated text and username filtering technology has established better real-time rejection of harmful language.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare lll will be available globally on PlayStation 5®, PlayStation 4®, Xbox One®, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Battle.net and Steam on Friday, November 10th. Modern Warfare lll is published by Activision, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI). Development for the game is led by Sledgehammer Games, in partnership with Infinity Ward. Development for Modern Warfare Zombies is led by Treyarch, working closely with Sledgehammer Games.

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For more information and the latest details follow @CallofDuty on X, Threads, Instagram, and Facebook.

About Modulate 

Modulate builds intelligent voice technology that combats online toxicity and elevates the health and safety of online communities. ToxMod, Modulate’s proactive voice moderation platform, empowers community teams to make informed decisions and protect players from harassment, toxic behavior, or more insidious harms — without having to rely on player reports. ToxMod is the only voice-native moderation solution available today, and has processed millions of hours of audio for game development studios large and small on computers, mobile devices and consoles. Modulate’s advanced machine learning frameworks have helped customers protect tens of millions of players against online toxicity to ensure safe and inclusive spaces for everyone. 

Visit Modulate at modulate.ai to learn more, and follow Modulate on LinkedIn and X.

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About Activision

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision is a leading global producer and publisher of interactive entertainment. Activision maintains operations throughout the world and is a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), an S&P 500 company. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website at www.activision.com or by following @Activision.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision Publishing’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the availability, pricing, features, and functionality of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III as well as the effectiveness of the  new voice chat moderation system are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Activision Publishing’s actual future results as well as the effectiveness of the new voice chat moderation system to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this press release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision Publishing and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Activision Publishing nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Activision Publishing or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

ACTIVISION, CALL OF DUTY, MODERN WARFARE, and CALL OF DUTY WARZONE are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.

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Activision Press Contact:
Xav de Matos
PR Director, Call of Duty, Live Operations
‍Xav.deMatos@activision.com

Modulate Press Contact:
Adam Mersky
Amplifier Group for Modulate
adam@theamplifiergroup.com