A “blue post” was made on Blizzard’s forums today announcing the very stiff penalties for anyone caught cheating in their upcoming first person shooter, Overwatch. The statement by Blizzard is as follows:
“If a player is found to be cheating–or using hacks, bots, or third-party software that provides any sort of unfair advantage–that player will be permanently banned from the game. Full stop. We’ve always taken cheating in Blizzard games very seriously, and that stance is no different for Overwatch. We are unlikely to publicly acknowledge when accounts are closed as a result of cheating or using unauthorized programs…”
Not making public announcements about their methods or regarding those who had their accounts closed has been a standard business practice with Blizzard and has been seen implemented numerous times on their other intellectual properties like World of Warcraft and Diablo III, the latter of which saw a massive ban wave at the end of their last ladder season. Blizzard also stated that there will be an in-game reporting feature to where players can report those suspected of cheating. This is very similar to the report systems in their other games as well.
Overwatch is a highly anticipated game from Blizzard and proof of that came with the open beta period earlier this month. 9.7 million players took part in the open beta, making it one of the biggest betas ever for both Activision and Blizzard Entertainment. Overwatch will be available on May 24th for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. You can still pre-order the Origins Edition to unlock five origins character skins and rewards for all of other Blizzard’s games such as a Baby Winston pet for World of Warcraft, an Overwatch card back for Hearthstone and Mercy’s wings for Diablo III just to name a few.
You can pre-order the Overwatch: Origins Edition here.
