'Overwatch' news: Blizzard to aggressively punish abusers of Mei's ice wall glitch

Many "Overwatch" players have been taking advantage of a glitch in Mei's ice wall, so Blizzard is finally doing something about it. Aside from coming up with a fix, the developer also promises to aggressively punish gamers who abuse the glitch.

For weeks, an exploit in "Overwatch" allows players to utilize Mei's ice wall ability to become invincible and get outside levels on 3v3. The glitch occurs when the player (as Mei) heads to a certain corner of the map, crouches down and puts the Ice Wall under the character. This sends the player to the upper level of the room which is technically not accessible to anyone. This allows players to roam above the map and enter areas that are supposedly off-limits. It's obviously a game-breaker for good and righteous players who do not cheat, and Blizzard found it difficult to solve the problem at first.

After a prolonged silence on the issue, game director Jeff Kaplan recently released a statement on the game's official forum to confirm that a fix is already in the works. The developer plans to eradicate the exploit as soon as possible, but Kaplan stressed that he's not 100 percent sure the fix will immediately solve the problem."There is always the chance that our fix could fail," he said. "We're currently testing to verify the fix," Kaplan went on to say.

As for the abusers of the glitch, Kaplan added that the team will be taking action against them. He also announced that gamers who try to reproduce the bug will face serious repercussions. "Overwatch is a PvP experience so that means exploiting game mechanics like this comes at a cost to those you are competing against," he continued, adding, "We take aggressive action against people who abuse game mechanics, hack or cheat. This case is no different."

To end his statement, Kaplan apologized for how long the whole process has taken for Blizzard to resolve the glitch. The director assures players that the bug will "go away soon," along with the users who took advantage of it.

Developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, "Overwatch" is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows PC.