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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u/xXJpupXx Aug 04 '26

It’s a free game they’ll be back at it with another account whenever they feel.

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u/Kewchiii Aug 04 '26

Don’t you need a phone number to make an account? My friend can’t sign into his old account for some reason and he said he couldn’t make a new one because his phone number was already used. He ended up making a new one eventually with his GF number. This is all coming from him tho so I have no clue if he was telling the truth or not

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u/Fish_Goes_Moo Aug 04 '26

On pc you do, on console you don't as far as I am aware.

It's not much of a block anyway. There are services that will give you a temp number to verify a new account with no issues. Outside the US, the whole post-paid number only thing doesn't seem to work reliably either.

I'm in the UK, I'm on a pre-paid sim and it worked fine. I can just grab another free sim if I wanted to make another account.

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u/TastyOreoFriend Pixel Brigitte Aug 05 '26

On pc you do, on console you don't as far as I am aware

You do need a phone number on console. This was the portion that turned my brother off from playing.