Last month Blizzard found itself in the crosshairs of the South Korean Fair Trade Commission, who raided the developers office in Seoul following allegations that it had violated the countrys laws on electronic commerce and commercial contracts following huge connection problems with Diablo III, more specifically relating to Error 37 and extended server downtime. But according to a post on the Diablo III Korea website that was translated by The Wall Street Journal, Blizzard is now offering a full refund to affected players in South Korea.
According to the report, players under level 40 can apply for a refund between June 25th and July 3rd. Blizzard will also accept refunds from players under level 20 within the first 14 days of the purchase.
In addition, game news site Joystiq also picked up on a little controversial waiting period added to Diablo III's digital editions with update 1.0.3, which restricts players that purchase the digital copy to Starter Edition access for, at maximum, 72 hours in an effort to combat fraudulent purchases and activity.
As of patch 1.0.3, when purchasing a digital version of Diablo III through the online store or your Battle.net Account, players are restricted to the Starter Edition for the first 72 hours (sometimes less). Players on Starter Editions have the following restrictions:
- Act I up to the Skeleton King is available
- Level 13 cap
- Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players
- No Auction House access (Real Money or Gold)
- Global Play is not available. Players attempting to connect to Diablo III Starter Edition in a region other than their Battle.net Account's home region will receive Error 12. See the Global Play support article for more information.
Needless to say, new customers are not too happy about that, especially given that some of them are claiming to be using the same credit card to purchase Diablo III that they use to subscribe to World of Warcraft. Maybe Blizzard can phone up Steam, GoG.com, or virtually any other digital game distributor to find out a way to help shave down that waiting period. So if you guys want to play all of Diablo III right away, you may want to head out and grab a retail copy to avoid a possible 3-day wait in Starter Edition Purgatory.
via CVG, Joystiq
Sources: Diablo III Forums, The Wall Street Journal
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