“Later this month we’re going to make a change to help here. Based on feedback from a number of people across a few competitive games, such as Overwatch, we’re going to change how reports of players impact the ability for people to play multiplayer in games,” he said in a Blizzard forum post. “In short, we’ll change it so that it will have no impact on a player’s ability to join and play multiplayer. It could still impact a reported players (this takes many reports over time, not just a few) ability to communicate with non-friends in multiplayer games, but it won’t prevent them from playing.”
No Effect on Manual Bans
To some, this may look like Xbox Live is taking a more relaxed approach to cheaters and trolls. However, a spokesperson has confirmed to The Verge that Microsoft will still ban in some instances. The main change, then, is that players won’t be punished by default. Otherwise, good players can be inconvenienced just for having great reflexes. Overwatch players have been complaining about this for over a year, so hopefully they’ll be pleased with the results. This change on Xbox’s part coincides with a promise from Blizzard. Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan confirmed last week that the game will be bringing its own reporting system to consoles. The feature is currently available via its Public Test Region and will be generally available soon.
