Blizzard has yanked Diablo 4’s trading system out of the game for the time being and threatened to ban players after gold and item exploits surface.
The exploit, which is no longer happening due to the trading system being disabled, involves two players initiating a trade with each other, where one player places a ridiculous amount of gold into the trade window and forces the game client to close. After restarting Diablo 4, both players would have the gold in their inventories, effectively duping the pile within the trade window.
Trading in Diablo 4, an already ham-stringed system, limits what players are able to trade to each other and offers no means of in-game communication for advertising their wares. As such, players are forced to flock to Discord servers, creating a sort of underground market to replace what should be an in-game feature for the action RPG.
The exploit finally prompted action by Blizzard after a rare crossbow was sold for 30 billion gold. On the Diablo 4 subreddit, a Blizzard community manager chimed in, stating that trading would be suspended until further notice and that anyone found to be breaking the End User License Agreement could have action taken against them.
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“We’ve suspended player trading in Diablo IV until further notice due to 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,” says /u/SinfulScribe, CM Manager for Blizzard.
Diablo 4 has been wildly successful since its launch in early June, but not without some hefty bumps along the road. The launch of its first season, Season of the Malignant, was met with massive backlash from the player base, prompting Blizzard to host another Campfire chat to address the shortcomings of the season’s balance patch. Since then, patch 1.1.1 was released, fixing many issues players had with the initial launch of the season.
