Given how popular gaming is in South Korea as personal entertainment and especially as a competitive eSport, it’s hardly surprising that certain individuals have taken to cheating the system in order to unfairly gain an advantage over their peers. Of course, hacking isn’t an issue confined solely to South Korea, but due to the popularity of so-called PC Bangs (internet cafes) in the country, it’s considerably easier for certain unsavory types to engage in such illicit activity without repercussion.
It’s no secret that Blizzard has struggled to contain the problem for its popular shooter Overwatch, but today the developer has outlined several steps it plans to take in order to tackle the issue head-on. As per a post on the Korean Battle.net (see translation here), Blizzard stresses the importance of maintaining the integrity of all its games and will “always seek to stop the development and distribution of these programs through whatever means” it can, and that includes “taking legal actions against developers and distributors when necessary.”
As of right now, Blizzard says it intends to curtail the problem by keeping a close eye on VPN usage which, it says “cheaters use to abuse the game,” but there’s a much more drastic change due to happen later this week that should prove to make a dent. From February 17th, “only players with valid game licenses in their personal Battle.net account home region will be able to play Overwatch in Korea,” reads the statement. A bold move, considering Korean Battle.net accounts are connected to social security numbers, effectively limiting the number of throwaway accounts hackers can make. The post goes into much more detail on the matter, so if you wish to give it a read, see here.
On a lighter note, Overwatch‘s Year of the Rooster event came to a close earlier this week. With the frenzied pursuit of Lunar Loot Boxes now at an end, let us know in the comments below if you managed to snag everything you were hoping for over the period.