'Heroes of the Storm' game map hacked, hackers get banned

U.S.-based game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. recently banned a number of hackers permanently from playing the "Heroes of the Storm" multiplayer online video game, after they were reportedly caught cheating and manipulating the in-game's map.

According to reports, Blizzard announced the ban after hackers had manipulated the game's map system which enabled players to see the positions of their enemies in the game and attack them while their characters could not see. PC Games N reports that a video uploaded on Youtube shows how this worked with one of the characters named Nova.

The game developer said it will not tolerate such actions and will suspend the accounts of those that violate the rules.

"Cheating and using hacks while playing Heroes of the Storm or any Blizzard game will not be tolerated. These actions undermine the spirit of fair competition that's essential to play on Battle.net, and can lead to stability and performance issues with the service." said Blizzard.

"In Heroes of the Storm, cheaters ruin the competitive atmosphere not only for their opponents, but for their allies as well."

"We recently suspended numerous accounts and issued permanent bans to Heroes of the Storm players who were found to be in violation of the Battle.net Terms of Use for cheating and/or using hack programs." Blizzard continued.

Blizzard added that it will continue to monitor the online game from any cheating and will take necessary actions to ensure safety and security. According to iDigital Times, an incident such as this had happened before back in May when over 20,000 online gamers had been banned for cheating in the H1Z1 game.

'Heroes of the Storm' game was launched just earlier last month as a full version for the OS X and Microsoft Windows platforms. It was developed and published by Blizzard, which is known for developing other popular games such as Warcraft, Heart of the Swarm and Diablo.

'Heroes of the Storm' itself centers on five-versus-five matches in which players have the chance to choose between three different modes.