Blizzard Entertainment shared an update of Overwatch 2‘s Defense Matrix Initiative on April 18, a program that doubles down on punishing cheaters and toxicity to make the game more inclusive and encourage fair play.
In the official blogpost, it revealed having permanently banned over 100,000 cheaters since the game released in October. This includes players who used unauthorized hacks or hardware that gave them an unfair advantage, but also players who used to team up with cheaters to benefit themselves.
“We’ve also taken steps to directly confront unauthorized hacks and prevent them from ever being used in Overwatch 2,” it wrote. Cheaters are rampant in online games, and the issue might have worsened in Blizzard’s title since it’s a free-to-play game, hence a sterner response. A few days following the game’s release in October last year, hackers had already found ways to cheat and ruin players’ experience
The Defense Matrix Initiative, launched alongside the latest title, regroups other tools the developer has introduced to curb those issues more efficiently. It includes a new algorithm unveiled with Overwatch 2 to tackle toxicity in voice chat.
The developer said the tool was already bearing fruit. “In many cases, players don’t realize how they communicate to their teammates can be disruptive and immediately correct their behavior after receiving a warning,” it wrote.
It also revealed working on more tools to find cheaters, punish toxicity, encourage positivity, as well as new ways to encourage players to hone their skills on their favorite heroes and to reward their progress. Lastly, it encouraged players to always report disruptive behavior in their matches, whether it’s in ranked or more casual game modes.
