Suspected Battle.net cheaters disposed of…en masse

Not pictured: cheaters!

The old adage ‘cheaters never prosper’ took on a rather personal meaning today for over 350,000 Battle.net users as their accounts were closed for good. Both Starcraft and Diablo II were specifically named titles covered in the massive banning; however, it is reasonable to assume any account found cheating on Battle.net is at risk of a suspension. At present, the majority of the users affected have had their accounts closed and their CD-Keys have been suspended for 30 days, with repeat offenders risking a permanent ban from the service. Citing the use of “third-party hacks” for the suspensions, Blizzard seems on the right track to ensuring the future home of Starcraft II and Diablo III is a safe and cheater-free service.

Hit the jump for more:

As part of our continued effort to ensure a fair and fun online experience for all Battle.net players, we have expanded our efforts to remove cheaters from StarCraft and Diablo II. We have identified and closed over 350,000 StarCraft and Diablo II accounts which were found to be using third-party hacks.

The Diablo II CD keys associated with the closed Diablo II accounts are now restricted from playing on Battle.net for approximately 30 days. Repeat offenders will have their accounts closed and their CD keys permanently banned from Battle.net.

As a reminder, we reserve the right to close the accounts and ban the CD keys of players who are caught cheating on Battle.net. Cheating ruins the game experience for legitimate players, and we will not tolerate it.

Blizzard has spoken! Long the bane of gamers everywhere, the cheaters finally seem to be losing that step ahead they have had for years. Our major battlegrounds seem to be moving more towards the straight-and-narrow, largely due to the efforts of the developers themselves. Microsoft also recently dropped the axe on thousands of Xbox Live accounts, though mum’s the word on exactly why. The folks over in Redmond have had a reporting system in place for their users for years, so it could very well be that they are cracking down on the cheating populace as well. Only time will tell if these account closures and bans actually serve as a deterrent (as opposed to a push to step up the cheating game), but things definitely seem to be looking up.

Read: Starcraft and Diablo II Battle.net Policy Update

Read: Microsoft Swings Xbox Live Banhammer, Thousands Fall (Kotaku)