Tag: Diablo III

Forbes Accidentally Leaks Diablo III On Switch


Whoops!

Blizzard was hoping to WoW the world tomorrow with the announcement that Diablo III would be coming to the Nintendo Switch, a reveal that may go down as one of 2018’s worst kept secrets thanks to a long series of rumors and possible teasers that the game would indeed be coming to the platform. Unfortunately Forbes blew the news a bit too quickly, with coverage of the embargoed news briefly going online before quickly being pulled off.

As they say, the internet never forgets, and intrepid young sleuths were able to get their hands on the announcement and its details. It looks like the game will be sold as the Eternal Collection, including Reaper of Souls and the Rise of the Necromancer expansion, and will also include a number of Nintendo exclusive cosmetics. Cosmetics include the Ganondorf cosmetic armor set (naturally), tri-force portrait frame, and chicken pet and Echoes of the Mask wings.

Diablo III on Switch will also allow up to 4 players on a single system, four players on separate systems wirelessly, and online on Nintendo Switch (launching in September) and will cost $59.99. Forbes’ details were confirmed by Kotaku who also had access to the embargoed news. As Nathan Grayson points out, this is also the first Blizzard game on a Nintendo system in 15 years.

Blizzard is reported to have several Diablo projects in the works, with this presumably being one of them. Most assuredly there are more announcements in the works, however your guess is as good as ours on when Blizzard is ready to have them leaked announced.

Diablo III's Auction House Shutting Down


Best-Soloing-Classes-Diablo-III

Ding dong, the witch is dead. Ever since the idea was first revealed by Blizzard, the auction house in Diablo III has been readily panned by players for undermining the core gameplay of killing a load of things to amass a load of stuff. In a surprise announcement, Blizzard has announced that the auction houses, both real money and the fake kind, will be shut down on March 18th, 2014.

When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But as we’ve mentioned on different occasions, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo’s core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot. With that in mind, we want to let everyone know that we’ve decided to remove the gold and real-money auction house system from Diablo III.

The update will go hand in hand with the Loot 2.0 system coming with the first Diablo III expansion.

(Source: Diablo III)

Diablo III’s Auction House Shutting Down


Best-Soloing-Classes-Diablo-III

Ding dong, the witch is dead. Ever since the idea was first revealed by Blizzard, the auction house in Diablo III has been readily panned by players for undermining the core gameplay of killing a load of things to amass a load of stuff. In a surprise announcement, Blizzard has announced that the auction houses, both real money and the fake kind, will be shut down on March 18th, 2014.

When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But as we’ve mentioned on different occasions, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo’s core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot. With that in mind, we want to let everyone know that we’ve decided to remove the gold and real-money auction house system from Diablo III.

The update will go hand in hand with the Loot 2.0 system coming with the first Diablo III expansion.

(Source: Diablo III)

Blizzard Releases Free Trial For Diablo III


Blizzard announced today that Diablo III is launching a starter edition, the restrictions of which will be familiar to those who participated in the pre-release beta. Announced earlier today, new players will be able to play up through Act 1, to the Skeleton King, absolutely free. There are several restrictions in place to keep the service from being abused by gold farmers: Level is capped at 13, starter accounts will be unable to access either auction house, and match making will only be available with other starter edition users.

Any progress made during the starter edition will be carried over if you do decide to purchase the full game. The starter edition serves to branch out the already available guest pass.

(Source: Battle.net)

Diablo III Under Investigation In France, Germany, South Korea


Those of you paying attention here at MMO Fallout know from a previous article that Blizzard is currently under investigation by the South Korean Fair Trade Commission over complaints that Blizzard did not deliver on service for Diablo III players, and refused to offer refunds for those who could not access the game due to consistent server downtime. Blizzard’s offices were raided and the investigation is currently ongoing, but likely to end up in favor of the consumer.

In France, Blizzard was given 15 days by the consumer bureau to fix connections regarding Diablo III, an issue which still plagues the game in every continent. They are also asking Blizzard to compensate players for damages accrued due to downtime, and are requesting a formal investigation into the use of always-on DRM. If the server stability is not met, the consumer bureau intends on taking Blizzard to court.

In Germany, however, the issue is a little different. The Federation of German Consumer Organizations has stated that Blizzard is being held accountable for anti-trust violations. Diablo III is being investigated for not disclosing on boxes that the game required an internet connection to play in single player, as well as not disclosing that the game was unable to be resold due to the permanent connection with one’s battle.net account. Or if you want to use the original German translation, Blizzard are being investigated for Wettbewerbsverstöße abzugeben, which sounds a whole lot more threatening.

Granted, neither of the French or German groups have the power to impose punishments on Blizzard, they will have to take the company to court and have a judge hand down a verdict.

(Source: Incgamers)

Blizzard Being Investigated In Korea Over Diablo III Refund Refusals


Gaming return policies are a double edged sword. You can’t return games because, on one hand the policy stops people from burning the games to a disk and simply returning them. On the other hand, and this goes equally for digital downloads, if the game is broken or unplayable at a fundamental (the game on the disc, not the disc itself) level, the customer has no recourse other than to hope one day that the company patches out the problems. In other words, once the company has your money, they have your money. Unless, of course, you’re willing to go the chargeback route.

South Korea has taken issue with Blizzard’s policy of “no refunds,” raiding the Blizzard offices this afternoon to gather evidence in an investigation as to whether or not the company violated South Korean law by refusing refunds. Dissatisfied Diablo III players, unable to log in to the game, were denied refunds under Blizzard’s terms of service. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission, who conducted the raid, did not comment on the matter further than admitting that there have been numerous complaints filed.

Blizzard apparently believes they are in the right, as the company has not changed its mind on refunds.

(Source: Korea Times)

Blizzard Investigating Account Theft, Denied Authenticator Hacking


I know what you’re thinking: Sure, denial is exactly what someone would do when they have something to hide. Well take a moment to remember that denial is also something a person will do when they are truly innocent of the charges, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Coming off of the release of Diablo III was the well-expected surge in accounts being stolen and stripped clean. Some of those people also happen to have authenticators, raising suspicion as to whether or not the security method has been successfully cracked. I have good news:

Blizzard wants you to know that you are a liar, if you claim to have been hacked with an authenticator already on the account. According to Blizzard, not a single case has been filed where an authenticator was already on the account.

While the authenticator isn’t a 100% guarantee of account security, we have yet to investigate a compromise report in which an authenticator was attached beforehand.

On the other hand, you can rest assured that the Blizzard servers have not been breached. And once again to the paranoid conspiracy theorists who think Blizzard compromises/sells accounts to scam/scare users into buying authenticators, you are still wrong.

(Source: Blizzard Forums)

Drakensang Relates To Diablo III and Torchlight 2


Bigpoint’s dungeon crawler Drakensang Online doesn’t just have the big mouth of its developer to back it up, it drives around in its Lamborghini waving around the wad of dosh to anyone willing to take a glance. I took a look at the game back in February and found it to be an enjoyable game despite its focused reliance on the cash shop and regular sales.

But Bigpoint went even further in its latest press email, detailing everything that Drakensang Online is that Diablo III and Torchlight II are not. It might be a bit unfair to throw in comparisons of “weekly content updates” and “frequent community events” in relation to two games that haven’t even been released yet, but then again Bigpoint isn’t known to be subtle in their advertising.

We’ll see if Bigpoint is writing a check its tush can cash when Diablo III launches in a few weeks, with Torchlight following hopefully this year.