Blizzard bans more Diablo III players

Blizzard Entertainment has banned more Diablo III players. In a blog post today, the company confirmed the bans, but did not say how many players were booted in all or if the bans were temporary or permanent.

"Over the last year, we've issued frequent rounds of account bans for cheating in Diablo III, and we've just issued another," the company said. "While we may not mention each round of account bans when they occur, we have and will continue to monitor Diablo III for exploitative behavior and take action as needed in order to help preserve the integrity of the game."

Blizzard banned "several thousand" Diablo III players in December for using botting hacks.

The company reminded players that hacks, bots, and third-party software are all prohibited for Diablo III. Blizzard said this software "undermines the spirit of the game" and can result in a permanent ban.

"Not only that, but third-party programs can cause nasty technical problems, game-related bugs, and stability and performance issues with Battle.net, all of which can greatly impact your gaming experience as well as the gaming experience of others," Blizzard said.

Players with information pertaining to a hack or a bot can reach Blizzard at Hacks@Blizzard.com. Diablo III launched for the PC and Mac last May and has sold over 12 million copies to date.

The game will be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 3. Next-generation console versions are also in the works.