Diablo III ban hammer to strike "in the near future"

Blizzard would like to remind cheaters that you can be permanently banned from the game if you get caught - and since we're talking always-on DRM, that is a serious threat.

It's not clear what sparked the sudden irate post on the game's blog, but the message is clear: don't cheat.

"If a Diablo III player is found to be cheating or using hacks, bots, or modifications in any form, then as outlined in the Diablo III end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net to play Diablo III with his or her account," the developer warned.

"Playing Diablo III legitimately means playing with an unaltered game client. Doing otherwise violates our policies for Battle.net and Diablo III, and it goes against the spirit of fair play that all of our games are based on. We strongly recommend that you avoid using any hacks, cheats, bots, or exploits. Suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future."

Consider yourself fully informed and don't come crying to us.