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7 CommentsBlizzard marks Diablo 3's first birthday with sale, anniversary buff
By Michael McWhertor on May 15, 2013 05.15.13
To commemorate the first anniversary of Diablo 3, Blizzard is offering two incentives to encourage players new and old to visit Sanctuary: a weeklong sale on the action role-playing game and an anniversary buff for all players. Diablo 3 will be $39.99 this week through Blizzard's online store, a savings of 33 percent, for both the Windows and Mac versions. That offer runs until May 21, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. PT. For current Diablo 3 players, Blizzard will offer a 25 percent boost to their magic find and experience gain from May 15 through May 21. That buff will apply to all characters and stack with other bonuses, pushing past the 300 percent cap on magic find and experience bonuses.
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31 CommentsDiablo 3 gold-multiplying bug profits will be donated to charity
By Megan Farokhmanesh on May 12, 2013 05.12.13
All profits made by Diablo 3 players who exploited the gold-multiplying bug will be donated to charity, production director John Hight announced via Battle.net. Hight addressed the recent bug, unleashed after the game's 1.0.8 patch went live, that allowed players to duplicate gold from stacks of 1 million to 10 million through the real-money Auction House. Hight wrote that the team will ensure that all "legitimate transactions" will proceed as usual, and that players who did not take advantage of the bug will be allowed to keep their items, gold and money from sales. "We'll also be donating all proceeds from auctions conducted by the suspended or banned players — including all of their sale proceeds that we intercepted as well as our transaction fee — to Children's Miracle Network...
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4 CommentsDiablo 3 Auction Houses back online following gold-multiplying bug, trades reactivated
By Megan Farokhmanesh on May 11, 2013 05.11.13
Diablo 3's gold and real-money Auction Houses have been restored and players may resume gold trades, Blizzard announced via Battle.net. The Auction Houses came back online at 11:10 p.m. ET yesterday. The update notes that Blizzard has also temporarily reverted the gold stack size from 10,000,000 to 1,000,000 in the game's real-money Auction House. Blizzard community manager Lylirra notes that the change has been temporarily reversed to fix a bug currently preventing gold stack sizes from displaying correctly. Diablo 3's Auction House was taken offline earlier this week after the game's 1.0.8 patch introduced a gold-multiplying bug that allowed players to amass trillions. The bug was fixed shortly after, but the Auction Houses remained in offline maintenance mode for Blizzard to...
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4 CommentsDiablo 3 Auction Houses to remain offline for 'at least another 24 hours'
By Samit Sarkar on May 09, 2013 05.09.13
Diablo 3 developer Blizzard Entertainment was hoping to bring back the game's gold and real-money Auction Houses sometime today, but according to the studio's most recent estimate, they'll remain offline for "at least another 24 hours." Blizzard took the Auction Houses offline earlier this week due to a gold duping bug that surfaced on May 7, when it patched Diablo 3 to version 1.0.8. The studio was able to fix the bug that night, but decided to put the servers into maintenance mode so it could perform a complete audit of all transactions made since the release of the patch. The team believed that to be a better choice than having to roll back everyone's progress. "We feel that this is the best course of action given the nature of the dupe, how relatively few players used it and the...
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0 CommentsActivision posts 'better-than-expected' Q1 2013 earnings, but is cautious about rest of year
By Samit Sarkar on May 08, 2013 05.08.13
Activision reported "better-than-expected" financial results for the first quarter of 2013 today, but according to CEO Bobby Kotick, the company expects to encounter a more challenging back half of the year. The publisher brought in net revenues of $1.32 billion during the quarter that ended March 31, a 13 percent improvement over the same period in 2012 and 14.1 percent ahead of the company's projections. Activision also showed a marked year-over-year jump in net income from $384 million to $456 million, a 13.75 percent increase. Activision's earnings were buoyed by the impressive sales performance of StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, which was the top-selling Windows PC game in North America and Europe even though it launched with three weeks left in the quarter. In addition, Diablo...
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20 CommentsBlizzard takes Diablo 3 Auction Houses offline after gold dupe bug creates economic chaos
By Jenna Pitcher on May 08, 2013 05.08.13
Blizzard has taken the Diablo 3 gold and real-money Auction Houses offline after the game's 1.0.8 patch, which went live earlier today, introduced a gold duping bug that led to players amassing up to trillions in gold, causing serious problems with the Diablo 3 economy. "After the release of Patch 1.0.8 this morning, we made the decision to take the gold and real-money Auction Houses offline to investigate a bug that certain players were exploiting to dupe gold," a Blizzard spokesperson told Polygon. "Our team is working hard to fix any outstanding issues and take appropriate actions with the accounts involved." According to a Battle.net post, many players now have billions in gold and one player has amassed 371 trillion gold through the exploitation. A NeoGAF forum member wrote that...
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2 CommentsDiablo 3 matchmaking tags, XP bonuses live now in patch 1.0.8
By Megan Farokhmanesh on May 07, 2013 05.07.13
Diablo 3's 1.0.8 patch, which adds multiplayer bonus changes, matchmaking tags and more is now live, Blizzard announced via Battle.net. The update was announced in April, when senior technical game designer Wyatt Cheng said Diablo 3's cooperative multiplayer experience was not "living up to its full potential." Patch 1.0.8. includes a lengthy list of fixes for general, multiplayer and in-game mechanics. Players will receive up to a maximum of 30 percent bonus experience in four-player games, be able to identify all items in their inventory with the book of Cain or by speaking to Deckard Cain and more. The auction house's stack size for gold sales has also been increased from one to 10 million, and class skills have been improved throughout. You can read the full list of changes here....
Culture
6 CommentsBlizzard Service Award Sword and Shield on eBay for $20,000
By Jenna Pitcher on Apr 30, 2013 04.30.13
A Blizzard Service Award sword and shield, awarded to Blizzard employees for long service, is listed on eBay with a "Buy It Now" price of $19,999. The seller, "gemmintwen," states the sword and shield belonged to a former Blizzard executive who received the ten-year milestone shield in 2007. The employee's name is currently protected for privacy reasons; however, their identity will be revealed to the winning bidder. At the time of writing, two offers have been made on the items. The Swords and Shields ceremony began at Blizzard in 1996 to recognize long service employees. Those who have been with company for five years receive a sword; ten years awards a shield; fifteen year veterans are given a special ring; and employees who give twenty years of service are rewarded with a...
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32 CommentsDiablo 3 for PlayStation 3 pre-orders up for $59.99 with Infernal Helm XP bonus incentive
By Michael McWhertor on Apr 29, 2013 04.29.13
Blizzard Entertainment opened pre-orders for the PlayStation 3 version of Diablo 3 at select retailers today, the company announced, with the console release of last year's action RPG retailing for $59.99. Pre-orders of Diablo 3 on PS3 will net players an in-game item, the Infernal Helm, which gives players an experience point boost. The game is available for pre-order at Amazon, GameStop and Walmart in the United States. A list of retailers in other countries is available at the official Diablo 3 website. The PS3 version of Diablo 3 features a new user interface designed to work with a gamepad, a new camera perspective and updates to the game's boss battles, Blizzard said in a release. Cooperative multiplayer for up to four players, both local and online through Sony's PlayStation...
Diablo 3 auction houses 'really hurt the game,' game's director says
By Christopher Grant on Apr 04, 2013 04.04.13
Wilson's panel during last week's GDC titled "Shout at the Devil: The Making of Diablo 3," covered the design goals of the long-in-development project as well Wilson's feedback on how well developer Blizzard Entertainment did in achieving them. One of the most notable acknowledgements was the team's displeasure with the controversial real-money auction house, which satisfied some of its design goals but also "really hurt the game." One of the key goals for the for the auction houses — both the real-money and in-game gold variants — was to reduce fraud. "A lot of people are going to third-party websites, getting their account information and their credit card information stolen," Wilson explained. "If they don't have a desire or a need to go to a third-party website, that's going to...
