Blizzard testing automatic shutdown for Overwatch matches where players are cheating
But game's director Jeff Kaplan promises rule-abiding players will not be punished in any way
Blizzard hopes its has found a powerful new deterrent against cheaters with a system that automatically shuts down Overwatch matches.
The studio announced the tech in a developer update video, in which game director Jeff Kaplan detailed how it will affect the popular shooter's community.
He said that the Blizzard team has "improved detection for cheating" and uses this as a basis to check all matches are being played fairly. If the system detects something suspicious, it will instantly end the match, booting out all players.
"We will make sure that nobody on either side of the match is penalised for that match being shut down," Kaplan stressed, detailing how it won't affect players' rankings in competitive modes and so on.
He added that "very harsh actions are happening against that cheater, you can be assured", although no further details were given.
Kaplan described this as "the next evolution of cheat detection in the game."
The hope, no doubt, is that players will eventually stop cheating since they won't be able to win matches while doing so.
However, it will be interesting to see whether this frustrates the Overwatch community overall and has an impact on the number of people playing.