50,000 gamers axed by Blizzard
Cheat crack-down in full-swing
Blizzard's reputation for taking a tough stance with cheaters spoiling their games was left in doubt last week, with the developer permanently closing the accounts of some 50,000 online Warcraft III gamers. The Battle.net service has seen large-scale retribution of this kind before, but it is believed this could be one of the largest crack-downs thus far. "We will continue to monitor Battle.net for cheating and take action as needed," Blizzard commented. "As always, thank you for your continued support; with your help we have been able to keep Battle.net a fun and safe place to play Blizzard games."
Blizzard is renown for taking a proactive approach against cheating, and a grand total of 53,928 accounts were sliced, meaning their respective owners will need to start again from scratch with new accounts, having lost any previous ranking or status held. In addition to these account cancellations, over 8,000 cd-keys were suspended from the ladders for a month, with over 3,000 closed permanently. "Repeat offenders risk having their CD keys disabled, which will result in the permanent removal of their copies of Warcraft III from Battle.net," the company added.
A similar crackdown is expected in World of Warcraft. More as we get it.
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