Overwatch hackers could be a thing of the past with new anti-cheat system

Alan Bernal

Overwatch players are being met with a very welcomed surprise in the aftermath of the June 24 and 27 PTR updates which looks to have brought a helpful anti-cheat system to the live servers.

While Blizzard’s popular team-shooter has tons of heroes and strategies to mix up the formula with every attack, cheaters have been running rampant in the game for as long as the community can remember.

As summer 2019 has already been delivering a ton of exciting new developments in Overwatch, it seems like the best one yet will finally start to clean up the persistent hackers that plague the servers.

The only hacker Blizzard wants in their game is Sombra, so their new anti-cheat structure will hopefully keep out unwanted cheaters.

Blizzard is swinging the ban hammer

In a Reddit post, user ‘MentallyStableMan’ posted an in-game notification that shows a new pop-up for when a player in a game finds themselves on the wrong side of the ban hammer.

“Our Systems detected cheating and a player has been banned as a result,” the Overwatch message reads. “Your previous game has been cancelled and no win or loss will be recorded for either team.”

It looks like the anti-cheat system won’t be messing around by completely stopping a match midway through if it thinks someone is using unwelcomed software or programs to give them a competitive edge over others.

The game has had tons of hackers throughout its history, but hopefully that’ll change soon.

Overwatch players noted how none of the previous patch notes seemed to mention a banning system being implemented, and that it was probably for the best as to not give any cheaters a headstart in bypassing it.

For a long time, getting a handle on the waves of hackers in Overwatch has been something players have been wanting Blizzard to take more initiative on. If the new tactic pans out, it would signal a great new era for the three-year-old title.

Hopefully the anti-cheat system will be able to pick up problematic Overwatch players.

“Between this and the Workshop is this the first time Blizzard has actually made good on statements like ‘two surprises in the summer,’” Reddit user ‘billobob’ said. “… I hope they cut down on the new maps and keep efforts like this up.”

Hopefully Overwatch’s anti-cheat system will be the first big step into bringing some order as it concerns hackers, and will hopefully get better as time goes on.