Arc Raiders was briefly and unintentionally censored in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s beta lobbies, but Activision says the text filter glitch behind it has been fixed.
The issue surfaced on October 2, 2025, during early access and became widely noticed when pre-order players and Game Pass subscribers jumped into the open beta on October 5. Typing the full phrase “Arc Raiders” in chat turned it into asterisks, while the words “Arc” and “Raiders” on their own slipped through without a problem. The oddity quickly caught fire on the Arc Raiders subreddit, racking up more than 1,400 upvotes and sparking theories about shooter-season rivalries.
Activision has since patched the moderation filter and confirmed that mentions of Arc Raiders are no longer restricted. According to the company, the automated system mistakenly flagged “Arc” as a variant of an inappropriate term, which then triggered a phrase-level block when combined with “Raiders.”
It’s not the first time the title has tripped moderation systems. In August, the EA App briefly replaced “Arc Raiders” with hashtags before a fix arrived on August 6. Players now speculate that overlapping or similar moderation tools may be behind both false positives.
Embark Studios took the episode in stride, joking, “We’re still on track to release *** ******* on October 30th!” and even promoting a tongue-in-cheek censored page. The humor has generated a wave of free publicity for Arc Raiders, a third-person sci-fi extraction shooter. An open beta is scheduled for October 17–20, with the full launch set for October 30, 2025.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is slated to release on November 14, 2025. Treyarch’s current open beta focuses on feedback for a new playlist and aims to dial back skill-based matchmaking. The test runs through October 9 and adds a fresh 6v6 map called Toshin. On the security front, Activision says its Ricochet anti-cheat has banned 97% of cheaters, adding that this is just the beginning.
Between a resolved filter snafu, cheeky marketing by Embark, and packed fall release schedules, both Arc Raiders and Black Ops 7 are enjoying plenty of attention heading into launch. Players now have clear timelines, cleaner chats, and two big shooters to watch as the season heats up.
