Diablo 3 hackers banned as auction house launches

Thousands of users have been banned from Diablo 3 for hacking and using bots.

Blizzard issued a statement confirming ‘several thousand’ users have been hit with bans.

The statement read: “We recently issued a round of account suspensions and bans to several thousand Diablo 3 players who were in violation of the Battle.net Terms of Use for cheating and/or using botting or hacking programs while playing.

“In addition to undermining the spirit of fair play that’s essential to everyone’s enjoyment of the game, botting, hacking and other such exploitive behaviour can contribute to stability and performance issues with the Battle.net service.

“As always, maintaining a stable, safe and fun online-gaming experience for legitimate players is a top priority for us, and we’ll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and take action as needed.”

Meanwhile a new patch has gone live in America implementing a real-money auction house.

This allows users to spend real money to buy and sell goods instead of the games currency.

Users selling items for cash will be charged a 15% transaction fee when items are successfully sold.

The auction house is set to launch in other regions in the near future.