The Elder Scrolls Online's guild bank disabled

The Elder Scrolls Online developer Zenimax Online Studios disabled the game's guild bank feature today on European and North American servers, according to a post on the game's official forums.

The developers did not explain why the guild bank feature was disabled in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game or when players might expect it to return.

The halt could be in response to a bug that Reddit user Mistress-Rarity described earlier today.

"Some of you may already be aware," Mistress-Rarity wrote, "but a game breaking bug has hit ESO that allows characters to duplicate stacks of materials in their bank. It is so simple, in fact, that it is possible to do it by pure accident. I will not explain this exploit, but it is the first result of googling 'ESO Item Dupe.'"

The alleged bug allows players to duplicate items in guild banks, which players earn access to when a guild reaches a certain size. That could potentially upset the in-game economy as players exploit the weakness and amass wealth.

We've reached out to publisher Bethesda for further information and will update this article with more information as we receive it.

For more on the game, you can watch the Overview video below and a cinematic trailer released to celebrate its Mac and Windows PC launch earlier this month. The Elder Scrolls Online will be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this June.