A new exploit threatens to ruin Sanctuary’s economy – at least that’s what Blizzard thinks, because that’s why the trading feature in Diablo 4 has been disabled. In an update on the official Blizzard forums, a community manager explains that this exploit allows gold and items to be duplicated at will. Until the problem is fixed, the opportunity to trade will remain blocked – afterwards “user activities will be monitored to ensure a healthy gaming experience for everyone”.
In the same breath, those who used the Duplicate exploit are threatened with the EULA (End User License Agreement), because the user agreement prohibits active exploitation of such glitches. The fact that Blizzard is serious about such threats should not only have been known since the appearance of the “realm glitch”, in which characters could unintentionally switch between the Eternal and Seasonal Realms. The developers have already confirmed a first wave of bans here.
However, according to Blizzard, anyone who accidentally came into contact with the trading exploit need not worry: No action will be taken against players who “accidentally traded with a player who used the exploit”. However, the developers did not provide any information about the magnitude of the exploit activity in Diablo 4. The biggest beneficiaries of the exploit are likely to be real-money traders; i.e. websites that specialize in trading items and gold and charge different fees for this – it is not yet known to what extent Blizzard will also take action against this.
