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

[News Portal]

Users who purchased a Russian CD key for Diablo III now find themselves forced to play in Russian after a new patch from Blizzard removed multi-language support. A source claimed to games.on.net that Blizzard, who allegedly promised the keys would be region free, have now left "over a hundred distributors" facing "millions of dollars worth of losses". Click through for the full story.

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Read full article by Tim Colwill

[Disco LT]

Glad I didn't buy from a CD Key site then, which I normally do (granted D3 was a gift), but if you bought a game from a CD Key retailer that was advertised as region free, and is now no longer region free, would you be entitled for a refund?

This is going to hurt those companies/websites if so..

[DarKnode]

You can still buy the more expensive EU/US keys that are not really a saving because region locking keeps prices high. Annoying all round.

[Kinky Kel]

makes no sense why Blizzard would do this? They're still getting their money right? It's not like heaps of Russian copies "Fell off the back fo the truck" so to speak.

Blizzard are more EA everyday.

[James Pinnell]

Glad I didn't buy from a CD Key site then, which I normally do (granted D3 was a gift), but if you bought a game from a CD Key retailer that was advertised as region free, and is now no longer region free, would you be entitled for a refund?

This is going to hurt those companies/websites if so..

From what we found on our research, and from speaking to various distributors, most of the bigger guys are providing people with EU keys out of their own pockets.

[Bicketybam]

While I can sort of understand their point trying to stop players that buy the Russian release on the cheap and still get the English version, but why the hell to Blizzard care? The still got their pound of flesh when they sold the key to the distributors... are they pissed that more and more people are doing this and their projected sales for one area is lower then they expected? If so, greedy much?

Sounds more like something EA would do.

[James Pinnell]

While I can sort of understand their point trying to stop players that buy the Russian release on the cheap and still get the English version, but why the hell to Blizzard care? The still got their pound of flesh when they sold the key to the distributors... are they pissed that more and more people are doing this and their projected sales for one area is lower then they expected? If so, greedy much?

Sounds more like something EA would do.

Agreed. Blizzard sold these in good faith, telling wholesalers that they would have the extra languages available and no region locks. Then once they had the cash, patched them out and told people that they shouldn't be cheap.

Not great.

[Arhain]

This is really disappointing to see more distributors cracking down on international trade like this. Reinforcing regional price fixing is sad to see.

[Cyrinno]

Depends, I know I know of Russian copies are cheaper then dirt but if these were purchased for prices around normal import prices then there'd be no reason to do this.

Maybe they should work on their server problems first and worry about punishing cheap russian exports later

[Jez]

If Blizzard want to have some kind of regional pricing system that's one thing (though still kind of dickish), but to force it on people after the keys have already been sold and are working in English is just screwing people over.

[LeX]

What a load of ****, they should of region locked it from the start not after people have paid for it.

I looked on most of the well known cdkey sites for a cheap copy but they were all about the same price as Big W $58 so i just price matched from EB. (they wanted $89) I don't think i would of bought the Russian copy anyway.

[revengous]

I would never trust a key site aus local copy for me!

[v4moose]

Faced with warehouses full of stock they can't sell

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

Sounds like blizzard got a little more butthurt by the cheap key shindig than they were anticipating. I all in favour of buying from legit key websites, but I've always had my concerns going 'this far' into it, just for a cheaper price.

[PalZer0]

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.

[Yurtles]

I sense an actually valid lawsuit (for a change) against Blizzard in the near future.