Blizzard Is Banning Overwatch Console Players Who Use a Mouse and Keyboard (2024)

Overwatch 2 will permanently ban player accounts that use "unapproved peripherals" on consoles like Xbox or PlayStation, the game's developers announced this week.

In a blog post, Overwatch Senior Game Producer Adam Massey and Lead Gameplay Engineer Daniel Razza detailed their objections to console players who don't use controllers.

"Some players on console have been using devices that allow them to use a mouse and keyboard while tricking the console into thinking that the inputs are coming from a controller," Massey and Razza explain. "While some use different peripherals for accessibility purposes, some players take advantage of aim assist while using peripherals that were never intended to benefit from this feature."

The developers note that figuring out who actually uses what type of input device on consoles has been difficult, and some consoles even have what they call "anti-detection features."

Playing a video game with a mouse and keyboard to take advantage of consoles' aim assist features is also known among gamers as "ximming" because this can be achieved with a XIM device that allows consoles or PCs to support multiple input types. Other converters, like the ReaSnow S1 or Cronus Zen, also exist.

In a TikTok video uploaded in October, the Overwatch influencer known as "Flats," who has achieved a Top 500-rank in the game, reviews one Overwatch 2 player's aim and movement and ultimately accuses the unknown player of "ximming."

"That's why it looks like PC but with, like, a little bit of funkiness to it," Flats says in the video, adding: "Ximming is cheating."

Now, Blizzard is taking action against accounts using tools like XIM devices. "We won’t go into specific detail on exactly how we detect these devices," Massey and Razza state in their post. "We can say that our detection has already been in place for multiple seasons, passively gathering data for us to analyze."

The devs share that such "unapproved peripherals" are "highly apparent" at the game's highest competitive ranks. They also state, rather vaguely, that players with genuine accessibility needs are unlikely to be impacted.

"We have done our utmost to ensure that players with accessibility needs will be less likely to trigger our detection. If a player with accessibility needs is detected, we have tailored our actions so that these players will be able to continue playing Overwatch 2," the Blizzard post reads.

Overwatch 2's devs are also looking into whether it's possible to forcibly remove aim assist for mouse-and-keyboard console players, and then only match them with other console players using the same inputs.

"We recognize that many players use unapproved peripherals to enable input devices they simply prefer overall," Massey and Razza said.

Overwatch is a game with plenty of casual and competitive game modes. Its PC and console players have always been divided into separate servers for Overwatch's competitive modes, so they won't play together. This is unlike other shooters like Call of Duty, Fortnite, or Apex Legends, where PC and console players can "crossplay." Overwatch only offers crossplay in its casual, unranked game modes—though casual Overwatch games do affect one's initial matchmaking rank, or MMR, for competitive modes.

Ubisoft also took action against XIM users and other input converter users last year for its Rainbow Six Siege shooter game, announcing a solution it calls Mousetrap. “This is a problem that all console shooters have, especially the competitive ones,” Rainbow Six team lead Jan Stahlhacke previously said in a video.

Why does banning "ximmers" matter? While it's generally considered cheating, a mouse-and-keyboard setup with aim assist is technically the best of both worlds because it offers the precision of the mouse and keyboard but with a controller's added aiming support. Mouse-and-keyboard PC gamers have complained about aim assist on controllers for years, arguing that it gives an unfair advantage. But some controller players argue that it simply helps make up for the hardware's lack of dexterity, pointing out that mouse-and-keyboard players have more movement features at their disposal like "tap-strafing" in Apex Legends.