Twisted Pixel's 'Splosion Man had an exploit. People used it. Those people owned the leaderboards because of it. Now, in an effort to fix the game's problems and create a more even playing field, the developers have fixed the exploit, and will take aim at the cheaters. It doesn't appear that the repercussions are anything too serious, but they will have their scores erased and their homes burnt to the ground. Kudos to Twisted Pixel for having the balls to actually delete cheaters' scores - far too often developers seem to just let their scoreboards lay in ruins.

The press release is below, announcing "Splodejment Day," which sounds a bit too much like "Sploodgejument Day" too me.

TWISTED PIXEL CTO INITIATES SPLODEJEMENT DAY

Title Update and Leaderboard Wipe Coming to Splosion Man

AUSTIN, TX – August 31, 2009 – Frank Wilson, CTO of Twisted Pixel Games, learned today of an exploit that enabled cheaters to post impossibly good scores in his latest Xbox LIVE® Arcade game Splosion Man.  With cold precision, he initiated a response: Splodejement Day.

On Tuesday, September 1^st, at approximately 2 a.m. PDT, a title update will be released to permanently seal the exploit, and select scores will be wiped from the leaderboards, so that only legitimate scores remain.  This purge will be in time for the “Speedy Splode” trophy contest, where the player with the best time in the single-player level 3-8 during the week of September 6^th to 12^th will win a unique Splosion Man statue and an autographed poster by the developers.

When asked, Mr. Wilson had this to say about his custom-built leaderboard-clearing application, which he affectionately calls Splodenet: “It goes on-line August 31^st, 2009.  Human decisions are removed from leaderboard defense.  Splodenet begins to learn at a geometric rate.  It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Pacific Time, September 1^st.  There is no score but what we earn for ourselves.”

Twisted Pixel also stated that this title update will not add avatar accessory awardable support to Splosion Man, as the timing of that release is up to Microsoft.