Blizzard has suspended player trading in Diablo IV until further notice after the discovery of an exploit for duplicating items.
Player trading has been suspended until further notice on Diablo IV. An official post on the Diablo IV subreddit says that the suspension results from the discovery of a “gold and item duplication exploit”.
“We are working on a fix to amend this issue and will update you once we’ve reinstated the ability to trade,” reads the post. “Once that is done, we will continue to monitor this activity to ensure a healthy playing experience for all. As always, any account that engages in gold and item duplication exploits will be actioned in accordance with our End User License Agreement.”
According to IGN, the exploit involves a player initiating a trade with another player, then quitting the client, before logging back in – doing so causes the items to appear in both of the players’ inventories.
The IGN article explains that, thanks to the exploit, the Diablo IV trading market has become swamped with gold, causing its value to plummet. It gives the example of a crossbow that was traded before the suspension for an astonishing 30 billion in gold.
Player trading is only permitted for certain things in Diablo IV, such as gold, gems and rare items – things such as legendary gear and unique items cannot be traded. Blizzard had aimed to avoid repeating the mistakes of the auction house in Diablo III, where players could bid for items using real money, and which led to a player backlash that saw it shuttered a couple of years after the game’s launch.
But even with the removal of real money from the equation, it seems that trading in Diablo IV is giving the developer some serious headaches.
Read more: Diablo IV | modders will be banned, Blizzard warns
