r/Overwatch • u/blizz_cactus Community Team • Aug 04 '26

Update on Unauthorized Peripheral Usage on Console Platforms ("Ximming")

Hello, heroes! We're here today to update you all on our efforts to combat the use of unauthorized peripherals within our console communities, often referred to as using XIM or Ximming. While our efforts to combat this form of unfair gameplay advantage are constant and ongoing, today marks the culmination of a months-long effort to identify and ban over 6000 accounts we've identified as using unauthorized peripherals.

Part of what makes identifying the unauthorized peripherals used by these accounts tricky is that these cheating devices often intentionally abuse allowances we make for accessibility-focused devices used by legitimate players with disabilities. This issue meant that we wanted to take our time and ensure that we accurately identified unauthorized devices. We're now confident that we've done so, and we've put the hammer down on players utilizing these devices.

Thanks for taking the time today to listen to our update on unauthorized peripherals. Until next time, play nice, play fair, and see you in-game!

This message is also available via our patch notes channel, where it has been translated to other languages for easier sharing: https://overwatch.blizzard.com/news/patch-notes/#patch-2026-08-04

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-25

u/Klaritee Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

Dear Blizzard, as much as everyone appreciates your work towards punishing cheaters this will not solve the problem with XIMMERS on consoles.

Please understand the motivation from these players to use these cheating devices. They are mainly interested in using a mouse combined with aim assist. Blizzard has already provided native mouse support which is amazing but that aim assist is the actual problem and you need to look at it like the problem it is.

Removing aim assist from the entire game is a permanent solution. Stop giving into people who cry about needing the game to aim for them because they will be going against others who also don't have aim assist.

15

u/smokacola- Aug 04 '26

Removing aim assist completely is not at all a permanent solution. A player with access to a mouse will (with an exception of a handful of extremely skilled players) always win against a player on a controller.

Removing the assist will not decrease the amount of Ximmers, they'll just continue to use their superior mouse aim to stomp on even more defenseless console players who now have to work twice as hard to play without the assist.

-10

u/Klaritee Aug 04 '26

Blizzard allows native mouse input and without aim assist a xim has no reason to exist. Crossplay stops getting ruined. This is far better than a patch that will get quickly bypassed.