Blizzard To Ban StarCraft II Cheats 'In The Near Future'

StarCraft II players who use hacks or altered game clients to play the game may face a permanent ban from the Battle.net servers. The real-time strategy game's developer, Blizzard Entertainment, sent an e-mail to players reiterating the terms of the game's EULA, stating that "suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future". "Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating in any form in [its] games very seriously, and that’s no different for StarCraft II," says the release. "If a StarCraft II player is found to be cheating or using hacks or modifications in any form, then as outlined in our end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net to play StarCraft II with his or her account." "Playing StarCraft II legitimately means playing with an unaltered game client," it continues. "Doing otherwise violates our policies for Battle.net, and it goes against the spirit of fair play that all of our games are based on. We strongly recommend that you avoid using any hacks, cheats, or exploits." StarCraft II sold over 3 million units in its first month worldwide, Blizzard announced at the start for September, reigning as PC leader in retail game sales for 2010. The NPD Group said the game drove a 103 percent year-on-year rise in PC game dollar retail sales during July in the U.S.