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Blizzard has warned that it takes a dim view of cheaters. In an email it has explained how it will begin banning those who seek to gain an unfair advantage in StarCraft II.

Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating in any form in Blizzard games very seriously, and that’s no different for StarCraft II. If a StarCraft II player is found to be cheating or using hacks or modifications in any form, then as outlined in our 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 StarCraft II with his or her account.

Playing StarCraft II legitimately means playing with an unaltered game client. Doing otherwise violates our policies for Battle.net, 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, or exploits. Suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future.

Source: VG247

Blizzard has released the first custom map for StarCraft II. The 3v3 map Burning Tide sees players having to deal with lava floods in addition to each other to reach the central resource target.

Featuring timed lava surges and collectable mineral caches, Burning Tide is a 3v3 map that combines several thematic elements from the epic single-player campaign mission "The Devil's Playground." Like the campaign mission, the goal of this game is greed, and the first team to reach the specified resource total wins! Players hoping to achieve victory on this map will need to work together, carefully managing their team's unit production and safeguarding their vulnerable workers as they defend against enemy forces.

You'll find the new map in the custom games list of the StarCraft II client.

Who says PC gaming is dead? Blizzard has today announced that it has sold over three million copies of StarCraft II in the first month on sale.

Day one says accounted for one million, making it instantly the best selling PC game of 2010. Another half million sales followed in the next 24 hours.

"We appreciate all the enthusiasm that players around the world have shown for StarCraft II," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "It was important to us to deliver an overall gameplay experience that was accessible, balanced, and fun, and it’s been gratifying to see how strongly the global community has already embraced the game."