Blizzard has issued another massive ban wave, this time affecting over 18,000 suspect accounts in an effort to drown out cheaters in Overwatch.
Even though Overwatch has been on the market for six years, the multiplayer experience is far from perfect. Cheating is rife in Blizzard’s popular hero shooter, as it is in most big multiplayer games.
While the creators have stated that they intend to eliminate smurf accounts in the long run, pesky hackers remain a problem. However, before we go on to Overwatch 2, a more concerted attempt has been made to alleviate the cheating situation.
Blizzard has been actively taking down hackers in Overwatch since the original cheating update in May. In total, 24,003 accounts have been closed in the last three months.
On August 24, another significant ban wave was issued as a result of this concerted effort. Another 18,003 problematic accounts were shut down as a result of this single strike.
“This is all part of our ongoing commitment to anti-cheat efforts,” Overwatch Community Manager AndyB said.
Evidently, the in-game report function appears to have led to many of these recent bans.
“Please continue to use the report feature in-game,” the dev stressed.
While the dearth of new content has recently irritated the Overwatch community, the ongoing ban waves should keep the existing player base a little safer online.
There’s no better moment for Blizzard to crack down on cheating than now, with more harmful hacks appearing in recent releases.
