Last month, Blizzard promised to ban anybody who cheats in Overwatch, no second chances. It looks like they’re following through.
Overwatch has only been out for a bit more than a week, and Blizzard is already showing cheaters and hackers the door. First up, users of a popular Overwatch cheat program began reporting bans en masse yesterday, to the point that the program’s creators have shut down authentication servers until they can figure out what to do.
According to PC Gamer, some people are even reporting bans that span multiple copies of the game. “Bought the game again,” said one alleged cheater. “Didn’t hack on it at all, just wanted to enjoy the game a bit. Two days later—banned again. Bought the game... again. But before doing that, I deleted Overwatch and launcher completely. Enjoyed it again without cheating only for a day.” They claim they even tried altering hard drive IDs, MAC address, BiosDate, and buying a VPN, but they still kept getting banned.
Meanwhile in China, Blizzard and partner NetEase have been swinging the banhammer like a Reinhardt surrounded by Tracers that have finally, mercifully been frozen by a Mei ult, thank the pluperfect heavens. Earlier today, they announced a 1572-person ban wave. Not only that, they revealed the username of everybody who’d been banned. Savage.
In case it wasn’t already apparent, the moral of the story is pretty simple here: Don’t cheat. Don’t “experiment” with cheat tools. Don’t cheat in a box or with a fox. Don’t even think about cheating. If you have an issue with sleepwalking and have been known to shamble to your PC and type the words “Overwatch hacks” into Google, start wearing oven mitts to bed. Or, if that strikes you as uncomfortable, maybe just cut off your hands. If you find yourself cornered by an alligator in a Florida bog and think that soothingly tapping out “Overwatch hacks” on your phone repeatedly might calm it, remember that alligators are generally docile, so you probably deserve the mauling you’re about to receive. If a bomb’s about to detonate and you think the code to disarm it might be “Overwatch hacks,” you’re probably wrong.
Think that covers all the bases. Have I made myself clear?