Blizzard Removes Multi-Language Support for Russian Copies of Diablo III, Leaving Gamers Stranded

[MaddMoose]

Somehow I think the argument of my Russia version of the game isn't in English won't stand up in court very well either.

[Yurtles]

What is that, a triple negative sentence? I have no idea what you're trying to say

The angle you'd use if you took it to court would obviously be that the product you purchased is no longer the product you own.
With no forewarning and the change making the game go from a functional state to a virtually unusable one I think there's an argument to be made.

[Lexxbomb]

Keys are sold cheaper in poorer countries at a lower price which is subsidised by the higher price in wealthier countries.

If everyone from the richer countries starts buying the keys from the poorer countries then the business model fails. Blizzard are just closing a loophole, don't really blame them.

The problem is that you have examples like Australia and New Zealand in which We are charged at a higher rate then countries like America and yet America is considered a much wealthier nation...

Plus with the changes in Australian import laws we are allowed to import from other regions... so buying a Russian Key is basicly the same as buying a physical copy here... even more so with the Australian Government starting a discussion and examination on the higher prices being charge within Australia for games - we could end up seeing the Government passing laws designed to restrict price gouging here...(which by the way was why we are now allowed to import from other regions)...

what it will probably boil down to if it ever goes to court is whether the Russian copies ever had the other languages on the disk in the box - siting in the warehouse in Russia... If it does then legally I believe Blizzard does not have the right to remove them because the user paid for them...unless they were required to due to government department ruling - see The witcher 2, in which 2 files are removed via first patch during installation that takes out 2 sex scenes that were not allowed due to rating board, and heck the digital download from GoG.com never had those 2 files in the Australian Version.

heck one could even make the claim that region locking it self should be illegal due to court rulings (which is why all DVD players sold in Australia are region free now - DVD drives and Blu-Rays aren't though)

[sp4z3n3ko]

Yay for price gouging?

Well done Blizzard. You've managed to make gamers hate you even more.

Let's round off the list of fails in relation to Diablo 3:
1. Always online DRM
2. Server issues at launch stopping people from playing the game (there's still some issues with the servers even now).
3. No local servers for Australia (meaning that we have to suffer constant 3 figure ping in excess of 200 (which can become unplayable on higher difficulty levels))
4. Poor security (no lockout for too many incorrect password attempts, vulnerabilities that expose every active Battle.net email address, passwords not case sensitive, no lockouts for strange login activity such as coming from a foreign IP address) that has led to an unusually high number of account compromises
5. Most recent: Changing Russian keys so that they're not multi-language to enforce price gouging

If I've missed anything, let me know.

You forgot that they will probably force you to buy or have an identifier for RMAH...

but they advertised that it would be standard in the game....

On a side note this is not restricted to RU keys, if you want to know more visit the Blizzard forum like: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4551560816

[PalZer0]

You forgot that they will probably force you to buy or have an identifier for RMAH...

but they advertised that it would be standard in the game....

On a side note this is not restricted to RU keys, if you want to know more visit the Blizzard forum like: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4551560816

You mean an authenticator? That's not really a problem if you have a smartphone (and, to be honest, who doesn't these days?).

I can see the problem for those who don't have a smartphone and have to pay up for a Blizzard authenticator - especially given that the shipping cost can turn out to be more than the cost of the authenticator itself.

[Lexxbomb]

You forgot that they will probably force you to buy or have an identifier for RMAH...

but they advertised that it would be standard in the game....

On a side note this is not restricted to RU keys, if you want to know more visit the Blizzard forum like: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4551560816

You mean an authenticator? That's not really a problem if you have a smartphone (and, to be honest, who doesn't these days?).

I can see the problem for those who don't have a smartphone and have to pay up for a Blizzard authenticator - especially given that the shipping cost can turn out to be more than the cost of the authenticator itself.

you can buy the authenticators in stores now... I know Gametraders sells them

[sp4z3n3ko]

Yeah true almost everyone has a smartphone, but they advertised it as being a part of the game without anything "extra" needed.....

that's illegal.

Pardon my english...

[Cyrinno]

true if it was advertised that way.

[asmodai]

this is becoming a habit with myself on here, i always seem to be defending diablo 3 even though i'm kind of over it.

One would suggest then that you stop doing it then? \= |

But this goes for any game,

i would normally expect that a RUSSIAN version of a game, Cd key or DVD copy would be in RUSSIAN. Maybe that's just me. i wouldn't buy a DVD from Malaysia and expect it to be the same version over as i would get down the road at JB Hi Fi.

What you expect doesn't matter. What the company states at the point of sale does. Blizz sold the copies as region free, the companies sold the keys as region free. Blizz changed the game so that they are now region(language) locked.

Also the image seems to be a little bit skewed from what i was reading. The game is not Region locked. You can still switch between Europe, Asia and america's. it is now just enforcing the language of where that CD key was sold.

I'm not certain if you are being purposely obtuse (ie. trolling) or are just thick at this point. Swapping the region will not make it easier to try and understand just what the hell you looted since it's all in Cyrillic.

and this is most likely something that will be fixed in a hot fix after the shutdown tonight.

Based on what exactly? Your guess?

Yep

Unless I wake up tomorrow and find my self fluent in Russian, I'm not going anyplace near games sold in languages I don't understand.

Your choice, but when the games are sold at a fraction of the price and the advertised ability to change the language files to cater for your native tongue, the only danger is when the games company plays the cunning stunt and switches off the ability to alter the language...

Certainly sucks for those effected though, especially if the seller failed to mention the source/language.

The games were sold explicitly as 'you can change the language files'. People could (and did) change the language files. Blizz didn't close a loophole, they shut down functionality. The sellers might be trying to make this right, but they didn't turn off the functionality.

Beats me why everyone tries to shift the blame from the megalithic money making machine companies to the people trying to provide a cheaper legitimate alternative. They are clearly altering the product post sale to make it essentially unusable for non-Russian speaking players.

[Cyrinno]

When your going to Russia to get your cdkeys your on the other end of greed, an opportunist. There's only so much you can defend. There's a scale and to me it's just one step above pirate.

You've got pricing

Pirate(illegal)
Russia(unfair to developer)
America(neutral and fair)
Australia(unfair to consumers)

I don't have any sympathy for anyone paying peanuts for a game, like I also don't have any sympathy for the developers when we go offshore to import.

Maybe I should go steal a car from holden and then drop a $50 in it's place, it's all good I paid for it..

[v4moose]

I bought from CD-key site, it was a euro key though.

I wasn't aware digital keys took up space these days...

Eh? You can't buy a digital key from Blizzard to distribute. You have to buy box copies and scan the keys.

A lot of these companies usually take photos of their warehouses and the (literally) piles of games scattered around the place to put on Facebook to show proof of their legitimacy.

Thankyou for the correction guys

[Anon. E. Moose]

When your going to Russia to get your cdkeys your on the other end of greed, an opportunist. There's only so much you can defend. There's a scale and to me it's just one step above pirate.

You've got pricing

Pirate(illegal)
Russia(unfair to developer)
America(neutral and fair)
Australia(unfair to consumers)

I don't have any sympathy for anyone paying peanuts for a game, like I also don't have any sympathy for the developers when we go offshore to import.

Maybe I should go steal a car from holden and then drop a $50 in it's place, it's all good I paid for it..

How is buying a key from Russia akin to pirating? The keys aren't illegitimate.

Sure, what Blizzard have done is a pretty dick move, but the phrase "You get what you payed for" holds very true in this case. Russian keys have always been full of hassles, requiring language packs, vpns to activate and even download in some cases. If you want to pay dirt for a product then more power to you, but just look at every other key for any other game sourced from Russia and you'll see the problems you're getting yourself into.

I don't understand the car analogy, you're not stealing a key and giving them a small donation for the trouble.
A very similar situation does occur in the car sales industry (coming from a past car salesman), think of Russian keys as Great Walls or bomb cars at your local used dealership.

[Otto-matic]

@Cyrinno
So you're of the opinion that the global marketplace is OK for publishers to take advantage of but not OK for consumers to take advantage of? Don't forget it's not just end pricing but basic labour and materials too.

Do you purposefully avoid sales at regular bricks and mortar stores too?

[revengous]

When your going to Russia to get your cdkeys your on the other end of greed, an opportunist. There's only so much you can defend. There's a scale and to me it's just one step above pirate.

You've got pricing

Pirate(illegal)
Russia(unfair to developer)
America(neutral and fair)
Australia(unfair to consumers)

I don't have any sympathy for anyone paying peanuts for a game, like I also don't have any sympathy for the developers when we go offshore to import.

Maybe I should go steal a car from holden and then drop a $50 in it's place, it's all good I paid for it..

This forum has had it's fair share of stupid posts in it's time but geez, this takes the cake.

How is buying a key from Russia akin to pirating? The keys aren't illegitimate. Sure, what Blizzard have done is a pretty dick move, but the phrase "You get what you payed for" holds very true in this case. Russian keys have always been full of hassles, requiring language packs, vpns to activate and even download in some cases. If you want to pay dirt for a product then more power to you, but just look at every other key for any other game sourced from Russia and you'll see the problems you're getting yourself into.

I don't understand the car analogy, you're not stealing a key and giving them a small donation for the trouble.
A very similar situation does occur in the car sales industry (coming from a past car salesman), think of Russian keys as Great Walls or bomb cars at your local used dealership.

you seem to be agreeing with his post.

[Anon. E. Moose]

you seem to be agreeing with his post.

I should have separated my post better. For the most part, yes I'm agreeing, I just don't understand how buying a key from Russia is similar to pirating the key or stealing a car.