Blizzard has confirmed that in an ongoing battle to rid the game of nefarious operators, it has reached a sizeable – but disconcerting – milestone. In a blog post on the developer’s website, it was revealed that, since the game launched in October 2022, ‘over 100,000’ Overwatch 2 cheaters have been banned from the platform.
Overwatch 2 had its fair share of bad press, which started flying around about the time that people realised it was more Overwatch 1.5, but since the game went free-to-play, the number of cheaters and malicious operators on the platform has swollen exponentially. Blizzard has pledged to never give up the fight against cheaters, but 100,000 (that we know of) banned in just six months is an insane figure.
How Many Are Slipping Through?
These days, it seems that no multiplayer project can surface without someone developing cheats to mess with the platform. From Escape From Tarkov’s plague of cheaters to Warzone 2.0 still suffering under the weight of nefarious activity, the world of online gaming is being forever impacted by an ever-present slew of cheats.
However, Blizzard isn’t willing to take that fact laying down. In the blog post, which was released on April 18th, they stated:
Our first guiding principle, “Fair is fun,” comes from our belief that cheating is never okay in Overwatch 2. Playing with cheaters is frustrating, robbing everyone of a fun and fair match. Our team will never stop working to identify and protect against cheats, and we’d like to share how you can help!
It was then revealed that Blizzard has been banning around five thousand malicious accounts every week, and has worked off-platform to confront the platforms offering these cheats. It’s a similar case around the industry, and at the start of the year, Activision Blizzard’s lawsuit against a popular cheat provider – EngineOwning – was a success, with courts fining the platform’s operators a whopping $3 million.
Blizzard detailed some rather tricky circumstances for those looking to ‘cheat by proxy’, as well. It was revealed in this all-important blog post that if you’re deliberately teaming up with cheaters to have an easier time in-game, you too will need to face the consequences.
Overall, it seems that Blizzard is willing to expend an immense amount of time and energy on perfecting its platform in terms of cheaters, disruptive and toxic behaviour, and foul play. It’ll be interesting to see how much of an impact the ‘Defense Matrix Initiative’ has going forward, and what the numbers of Overwatch 2 cheaters look like another six months from now.
For more Insider Gaming news, check out our coverage of the Modern Warfare 2 Free Access Week.
