Blizzard delays Diablo III real-money auctions indefinitely
The company also responds to concerns over account hacking.
by Kyle Orland - May 25 2012, 11:46am EDT
PC GAMING
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Those of you hoping to quit your jobs and make a living selling your Diablo III loot for real money will have to keep flipping burgers a little while longer as Blizzard has announced the game's much-discussed real-money auction house has moved "outside the previously estimated May timeframe."
The real-money auction service was originally planned to launch a week after the game's May 15 release, but the rollout was briefly pushed back to a planned May 29 before this latest delay. Blizzard now says that it "need[s] a bit more time to iron out the existing general stability and gameplay issues" in order to "ensure everyone has the smoothest experience possible" with the service. While the company didn't suggest a new date for the launch, it did promise to have "more information soon."
Meanwhile, many Diablo III forum users have been complaining loudly about hackers breaking into their accounts and stealing accumulated items and gold, a problem that would seem crucial to fix before those items start having a real-world value through the auction house. Blizzard officially responded to these reports today, stressing that its servers have not been compromised. The "extremely small" number of complaints that Blizzard has received about compromised accounts have all boiled down to traditional password-stealing methods, the company said, despite rumors of "session spoofing" and other esoteric attacks.
Blizzard continues to recommend that players use a physical Battle.net authenticator or a Battle.net mobile authenticator app to provide additional account security. In fact, it says it hasn't heard a single report of a hacked account that used one of these two added security methods, so do yourself a favor and protect your loot before it's too late.