Hearthstone bot creator forced out of business

Blizzard’s recent decision to block accounts deemed to have been using Hearthstone bots has forced one company to close its doors.

Those visiting the Crawlerbots website, who make Hearthstone bot Hearthcrawler and World of Warcraft bot Warcrawler, are now greeted with the following message:

This is our last official announcement. The recent ban wave in Hearthstone hit a lot of users. After discussing this with Blizzard, it’s clear we have to take off our services/products now. Please note that we’re not going to be commenting further on this.

Thank you all for being part of our community. We are very sad about this but you also know botting is against the rules and we all knew that the day when our products doesn’t work anymore would come. With tears in our eyes we have to say bye.”

Blizzard last week confirmed a new wave of action to block online access for those found to be using bot programs.

We’ve recently banned several thousand Hearthstone accounts that were associated with the use of third-party programs that automate gameplay, otherwise known as ‘bots’,” it said.

These accounts will be banned until 2015. As we’ve stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated.

We’re committed to creating a fun and rewarding environment for our players, and we will continue to closely monitor activities within Hearthstone and take appropriate action against cheating in any form. From this point on, accounts found to be cheating will be permanently closed without warning.”