Swedish developer DICE announced over Twitter this weekend that it has banned “hundreds of offending accounts” for cheating in its military shooter Battlefield 3.
The developer, a division of Electronic Arts, wants to ensure that gamers all play by the rules and level up in a fair way. The players of the accounts in question were apparently caught using a technique called “boosting,” where exploiting a certain glitch in the game allowed them to gain thousands of points during a match, according to the Battlefield 3 Blog. DICE says those accounts have since had their stats wiped.
“A patch is just around the corner, and we will continue to ban cheaters. We take it seriously,” DICE explained on Twitter. “That is our attitude here at Battlefield. We have zero tolerance for cheating players and are banning more all of the time.”
The bans affected players across all platforms – Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. It isn’t clear just yet how the gamers discovered the exploit and started using it.
Peter Van Nguyen, a spokesman for EA, said in a statement, “We take cheating and exploiting very seriously in Battlefield 3 and want to make it clear that it will not be tolerated.”
He added, “Last week, we’ve banned hundreds of offending accounts and have stats-wiped additional accounts for exploiting (such as boosting). We’ll continue to be monitoring and taking action against the minority that doesn’t respect the integrity of the game. I should also add that the Battlefield 3 community doesn’t tolerate this type of behavior. Our fans are rejoicing that we are supporting fair play.”