Blizzard Players Booted En Masse

In what appears to be an extreme case of spring cleaning, Blizzard Entertainment have recently banned over 320,000 users from playing their games online.

The announcement was made by Blizzard representative Bashiok on the Battle.net forums on 20th April. The company's decision apparently stemmed from the widespread use of illegal software hacks which, if used, constitute a violation of Battle.net's terms of service.

First-time offenders have apparently been given a temporary 30-day suspension, and repeat offenders have been banned permenantly. The full statement can be found here:

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=24401612572&sid=3000

Blizzard isn't known for making moves like this very often, and this wide attack on hackers and cheaters could be seen as an attempt to bring the fanbase into line before they release the much-anticipated space strategy game Starcraft II.