Blizzard bans ‘several thousand’ Hearthstone bot accounts

Card battler Hearthstone is now several thousand users lighter after Blizzard embarked on a bot-bashing spree.

We’ve recently banned several thousand Hearthstone accounts that were associated with the use of third-party programs that automate gameplay, otherwise known as ‘bots’,” the developer said.

These accounts will be banned until 2015. As we’ve stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated.”

While the current bans are only temporary, from this point on Blizzard has warned that bans will be in place for good.

We’re committed to creating a fun and rewarding environment for our players, and we will continue to closely monitor activities within Hearthstone and take appropriate action against cheating in any form,” it added. From this point on, accounts found to be cheating will be permanently closed without warning.”

Last month it was revealed that Hearthstone now has over 20m players. The Android tablet version is still due out before the end of the year but the iPhone and Android smartphone release has now been pushed back to 2015.