Blizzard Disables Diablo 4 Trading, Threatens to Bans Players Who Used Gold and Item Dupe Exploit

ign.com:

Blizzard has suspended player trading in Diablo 4 “until further notice” due to a gold and item duplication exploit, and threatened players who used it with a ban.

The exploit involved one player initiating a trade with a second player, dropping the items or gold in the trade slot, then forcing the Diablo 4 client to close. From there, the player would log back into the game, with the items or gold reappearing in the player’s inventory while also remaining in the other player’s inventory.

In a post on the Diablo 4 subreddit, a Blizzard representative said the developer was working on a fix for the issue and will update the community once it has reinstated the ability to trade.

“Once that is done, we will continue to monitor this activity to ensure a healthy playing experience for all,” Blizzard said. “As always, any account that engages in gold and item duplication exploits will be actioned in accordance with our End User License Agreement.

“We thank you for reporting this exploit to us and your patience.”

In a follow-up post, Blizzard moved to reassure concerned players that those who “accidentally” traded with a player found using the exploit “won’t be actioned against”.

While Diablo 4 technically supports trading (players can trade Common, Magic, and Gold items along with Gold, Gems and Elixirs), it does not include an in-game auction house (Blizzard famously removed Diablo 3’s real-money auction house back in 2014 following backlash). Instead, players have taken to using Discord to find buyers for their virtual goods.

But the economy underpinning this makeshift economy was left in disarray after some players used the exploit to flood the market with more gold than the game itself would normally provide. In one trade