Blizzard Will Ban Overwatch 2 Players Who Use "Unapproved Peripherals" on Consoles

Overwatch 2 has recently seen a bunch of important changes, including now-free heroes and Wide Matches for groups from different ranks. Soon after, Blizzard addressed the use of "unapproved peripherals" on consoles – a long-standing issue that has been around for years.

It's a common opinion among Overwatch players that if you move from console to PC, say goodbye to your rank because the console version provides an aim assist as it's harder to move precisely with a controller. However, if you combine the accurate movement of your mouse and keyboard with aim assist, it will be much easier for you to rush the ranks. So much, in fact, that many players consider using devices that allow you to do just that (a.k.a. XIM adapters) cheating.

Blizzard talked about the problem last year but didn't solve it. However, it now promises to ban everyone who abuses the system. While it was tricky to detect such peripherals, the studio managed and will first suspend the players who use XIMs from Competitive for one week, and if they don't learn from that, they will be "forced to play with other mouse and keyboard players when playing in Quick Play for the entire season." 

Moreover, Blizzard will give away permanent account bans for "the most severe abusers of unapproved peripherals" in high ranks. "For console players using these unapproved peripherals who do not want their account banned, the only way to evade these bans is to cease using an unapproved peripheral right now. There will be no other warnings!"

Interestingly, this issue encouraged the company to discuss adding official mouse-and-keyboard support to consoles in a way that doesn’t give players an unfair advantage. "So, in order to allow console players who would like to use a mouse and keyboard legitimately, we would make sure they would be able to play in Competitive matches only with other mouse-and-keyboard users and without the benefit of aim assist."

Speaking of bans, if you think you got suspended in Overwatch 2 for no reason, check your chat history: maybe you just said this prohibited word.

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