Blizzard Sued over Battle.net Authentication

Blizzard is being sued over the Battle.net authentication used in multiple games including Diablo III. A class action suit led by plaintiff Benjamin Bell is seeking damages for "consumer fraud, unjust enrichment, negligence, breach of contract and bailment," claiming that Blizzard is "deceptively and unfairly" charging some users to secure their data from hackers.

Bell is specifically referring to Blizzard’s $6.50 keychain authenticators, alleging that Blizzard has made $26 million by selling them. The suit accuses Blizzard of unfairly requiring users to use Battle.net and says the company has continued to “negligently, deliberately, and/or recklessly fail to ensure that adequate, reasonable procedures safeguard the private information stored on this website.” Bell points to multiple hacking incidents -- including May’s Diablo III hacks -- as evidence that Blizzard failed to take "the legally required steps to alert" players.

Bell is seeking damages and an injunction to bar Blizzard from “tacking on” costs after games have already been purchased. He also seeks to stop Blizzard from requiring players to sign up for a Battle.net account.

We reached out to Blizzard about the suit and a spokesperson sent IGN the following statement:

"This suit is without merit and filled with patently false information, and we will vigorously defend ourselves through the appropriate legal channels.

We want to reiterate that we take the security of our players’ data very seriously, and we’re fully committed to defending our network infrastructure. We also recognize that the cyber-threat landscape is always evolving, and we’re constantly working to track the latest developments and make improvements to our defenses.

The suit’s claim that we didn’t properly notify players regarding the August 2012 security breach is not true. Not only did Blizzard act quickly to provide information to the public about the situation, we explained the actions we were taking and let players know how the incident affected them, including the fact that no names, credit card numbers, or other sensitive financial information was disclosed. You can read our letter to players and a comprehensive FAQ related to the situation on our website.

The suit also claims that the Battle.net Authenticator is required in order to maintain a minimal level of security on the player’s Battle.net account information that’s stored on Blizzard’s network systems. This claim is also completely untrue and apparently based on a misunderstanding of the Authenticator’s purpose. The Battle.net Authenticator is an optional tool that players can use to further protect their Battle.net accounts in the event that their login credentials are compromised outside of Blizzard’s network infrastructure. Available as a physical device or as a free app for iOS or Android devices, it offers players an added level of security against account-theft attempts that stem from sources such as phishing attacks, viruses packaged with seemingly harmless file downloads, and websites embedded with malicious code.

When a player attaches an Authenticator to his or her account, it means that logging in to Battle.net will require the use of a random code generated by the Authenticator in addition to the player’s login credentials. This helps our systems identify when it’s actually the player who is logging in and not someone who might have stolen the player’s credentials by means of one of the external theft measures mentioned above, or as a result of the player using the same account name and password on another website or service that was compromised. Considering that players are ultimately responsible for securing their own computers, and that the extra step required by the Authenticator is an added inconvenience during the log in process, we ultimately leave it up to the players to decide whether they want to add an Authenticator to their account. However, we always strongly encourage it, and we try to make it as easy as possible to do.

Many players have voiced strong approval for our security-related efforts. Blizzard deeply appreciates the outpouring of support it has received from its players related to the frivolous claims in this particular suit."

Source: Courthouse News

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Diablo III Expansion Confirmed by Blizzard

Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo III will receive an expansion. During an earnings call for the third quarter of Activision Blizzard’s current fiscal year, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said that an expansion is currently planned, but no timeline is in place just yet for when it might be released. Morhaime noted that the quality of the expansion and its gameplay is the top priority, and both will be a “big factor” in driving the actual schedule of the release.

Elsewhere in the call, Activision Blizzard also mentioned that more than 10 million copies of Diablo III have been sold to date, expanding upon the number of players revealed in August. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick referred to “Blizzard’s record-shattering Diablo III sales” as one of the primary drivers for earnings so far this year, with Activision noting in a statement that Diablo III is “the #1 bestselling game in dollars and units on the PC in the U.S. and Europe” since its release in May.

Diablo III’s 1.0.5 patch was released last month.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Diablo III Monster Power System Detailed

Blizzard has detailed the Monster Power feature coming to Diablo III. In patch 1.0.5, Blizzard will add the Monster Power system, which gives players “more control over how challenging enemies are in each difficulty setting,” similar to the “Player X” feature in Diablo II. Monster Power lets players adjust monster health and damage based on various power levels. The harder the enemy, the more bonuses to stats players will receive, plus more drops. Monster Power will be available beginning at level 1 in the Quest Selection window and can be adjusted separately within Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno.

At launch, Monster Power will be available in solo and private multiplayer games. According to a post from Blizzard’s Stephanie Johnson on Diablo III’s official site, “Whenever you join a private multiplayer game, your hero will temporarily adopt the Monster Power level set by the party leader, and it will return to the previous setting you selected as soon as you leave the group.” Players won’t be able to adjust Monster Power in public games, but Blizzard is “looking into the possibility of adding that ability in the future.”

Adjusting Monster Power will offer “bonuses to experience, Magic Find, and Gold Find (which will stack above the 300% cap), and Blizzard showed off the difference between the bonuses in Normal, Nightmare and Hell versus those in Inferno. Inferno will offer increased bonuses, plus offer a chance for monsters to drop an additional bonus item.

“In Inferno at Monster Power 1 or greater, monsters in every Act will also be bumped up to level 63 and share the same high-end item drop rates,” Johnson explains. “This means that no matter which act you're progressing through, the monsters in that act will all have the same shot at dropping items level 61-63, including crafting recipes, Legendary items, and set items. While monsters in Inferno will all be level 63 at MP 1 through MP 10, their skills, abilities, and attributes will still vary from act to act. This means that certain Acts or Chapters may still be more difficult for you than others based on what monsters and Elite packs appear in each, but -- since the rewards will be identical across the entire difficulty -- where you choose to play is ultimately up to you and your personal play style.”

As for the philosophy behind adding the system, Johnson explains that “the intent of Monster Power is not necessarily to make the game ‘unbeatable,’ but to provide better ways for players to measure their progress as they become more powerful.” The team built the system around that idea, focusing on two areas.

The first is Monster Damage vs. Monster Health. Johnson explains that “with each Monster Power level there's a heavy emphasis on increased monster health rather than monster damage. This is because, in general, it's more fun to find ways to maximize your damage than it is to be forced into taking every available form of damage mitigation. We also didn't want to create situations where ‘hard to beat’ could become ‘impossible to beat’ because players couldn't survive long enough to make any progress.” The team tried testing scaling up monster damage but found that it made some fights more challenging in unfair ways or made it too easy for heroes to die after one hit. Increasing monster health, on the other hand, “allowed the game to scale up in difficulty more naturally and in a way that still felt manageable.”

The second area of focus is Efficiency. “By now, some players have reached a point where they can kill monsters so fast that even Inferno provides almost no challenge, and enemies die as soon as they appear on the screen,” Johnson wrote. “For these players, the bottleneck for efficient farming is actually the speed at which they can traverse the map rather than how well they can dispense with enemies.” Blizzard feels that Monster Power fixes this, as players can increase Monster Power for more of a challenge with better rewards. “Will some players be able to kill Diablo on Monster Power 10 as soon as 1.0.5 goes live? Absolutely,” Johnson writes. “Will that be the most efficient Monster Power level at which to farm items? For most, probably not. Monster Power allows each individual decide what that ‘sweet spot’ is for them.”

“In Diablo III, your character's power can grow by multiple orders of magnitude, but up until now there hasn't been a way for you to truly put that potency to the test,” Johnson concluded. “The Monster Power system provides a new outlet for high-powered heroes to truly see how far they've come and tangibly experience just how epic the gear they've collected is. Different players want different levels of challenge, and with Monster Power you'll be able to determine what the right level of challenge is for you. Whether you're in it for the guts, the glory, or simply the goodies, we're excited to offer players the opportunity to face the forces of evil on their own (possibly slightly insane) terms.”

Previously, Blizzard explained how patch 1.0.5 will reduce Inferno difficulty along with its changes to defensive skills and monster damage. For more on how patch 1.0.5 changes Diablo III, read our interview with senior technical game designer Wyatt Cheng and game director Jay Wilson about the patch’s two biggest features, plus when we can expect PVP to come to Diablo III.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Blizzard’s Titan Has 100 Developers

Blizzard has revealed that 100 developers are now working on its next MMO project, codenamed Titan. In an interview with Curse Entertainment, Blizzard chief creative officer Rob Pardo said “Titan’s still moving along. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up that it’s around the corner or anything. It’s a very big project. It’s got a long ways to go. We don’t know yet when we’re going to really start releasing more information. We’re definitely dead in the middle of development at this point. I think we’re over 100 people now on the team working on it.”

When asked about rumors that Titan has been in development for six years, Pardo commented that “It depends on how you look at such things. When we first start a team, we start it really, really small. We might start with just a couple people. We talk about the concepts, we draw some concept art. It definitely has not been in core development for that long. I’d say core development is maybe closer to four-ish years, but even that was with a smaller team.”

We first heard hints of Blizzard’s next MMO back in December 2007, when Blizzard said its new MMO isn’t related to World of Warcraft. Blizzard later began hiring developers and WOW lead designer Jeff Kaplan began working on the project. Blizzard said in 2010 that the project was a long way off and the codename Titan emerged later that year.

Last year, rumors suggested Titan would be shown at BlizzCon, but were later debunked by Blizzard. The last time we heard the title referenced was during an Activision Blizzard earnings call last month when it was referred to as “an all-new MMORPG in the future” in reference to Blizzard’s release calendar.

Little is known about Titan, and it sounds like we might still have a long time to wait before concrete details are revealed. In the meantime, Blizzard released World of Warcraft’s Mists of Pandaria expansion earlier this week. For our thoughts so far, read our Mists of Pandaria review in progress.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Activision Blizzard Sale ‘Still Under Consideration’

A new report suggests that Vivendi is still interested in selling its majority stake in Activision Blizzard. According to CVG, a credible source says the sale "absolutely remains under consideration" and that Vivendi is exploring its options.

CVG also reports that negotiations between Vivendi and Microsoft, who was once considered as a buyer for Activision Blizzard, “have not advanced,” while Sony “immediately ruled out” the idea of a purchase.

Vivendi owns a 61% stake in Activision Blizzard, which it acquired in 2008. Activision Blizzard’s value is currently estimated at $13.4 billion, making Vivendi’s stake worth approximately $8 billion. Due to Vivendi’s current debt, it’s been considering a sale since early June, but was later said to be finding “little enthusiasm” from buyers including Microsoft, Disney, Tencent and Nexon due to the massive amount of cash required to make the purchase.

Later reports suggested that Activision could partner with investors to buy itself back from Vivendi. Activision has only publicly commented on the sale during its second quarter 2012 earnings call last month, when CEO Bobby Kotick said “While we're unable to comment on Vivendi's behalf, we continue to remain focused on strong execution, the delivery of great games and the provision of superior shareholder returns as we have for over 20 years. Our strategy has served us very well in the past and will position us very well for the future.”

The future of the sale is uncertain for now, but while we wait for concrete information to emerge, read our thoughts on what would happen if Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Beta is Live

The closed beta test for the second installment of StarCraft II, called Heart of the Swarm, is now underway. Blizzard has sent out invites to a limited pool of testers, and in the coming months will be sending out more.

For now the test includes the multiplayer portion of Heart of the Swarm where testers will get a chance to try out the new units and abilities planned for the beta. Blizzard does not have a definite end point for the beta, so no word yet on a possible release window for the game.

If you’re interested and would like to help test out Heart of the Swarm, you can opt in through your battle.net account. Opting in does not mean you will definitely get access. Here’s what Blizzard said about how it selects who gets in through the opt-in pool:

“Beta testers are chosen according to their system specifications and other factors, including recent StarCraft II activity (and an element of luck), when selecting individuals during each round of invitations. Our goal is to have a wide variety of players and system types.”

For more on Heart of the Swarm, check out IGN’s recent interview with Blizzard’s designers.

Source : ign[dot]com

David Brevik And Blizzard Devs Clash Over Diablo III Criticism

A war of words has broken out between some current Blizzard employees and Blizzard North co-founder David Brevik after the latter revealed he was "a little sad" about how Diablo III turned out.

Brevik, who designed Diablo I and II but had no involvement in the third game in the franchise, was asked by IncGamers during Gamescom what he felt about Blizzard's latest dungeon crawler.

“

I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light.

He responded, "I have very mixed emotions about it. On one hand I am sad that people haven’t enjoyed Diablo because it’s a love, a passion, and it's obvious people still have a giant love and passion for Diablo... That makes me feel great.

"I am sad because people are outraged and... some of the decisions they have made are not the decisions I would make, and there have been changes in philosophy and that hasn’t gone over very well...

"I am also a little happy... I hate to say, [but] it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was, how unique and special... when the people leave the game changes, and it shows how critical people are in this industry."

His comments provoked a Facebook status update by former Diablo 3 technical artist Chris Haga, which was quickly leapt on by other contributors to the game. In the post, Haga originally stated, "Suddenly I feel like I was just thrown under a bus," before more of the game's developers shared their views. Unfortunately, this exchange was then screenshotted and posted on Reddit. It's since been removed from there, but you can see it below:

One of the comments that has drawn the most attention is that of Diablo 3 game director Jay Wilson, who replied saying "F*** that loser". A number of other game developers took to Twitter last night to label his reaction as heavy-handed, considering Brevik's fairly mild comments about the current state of a franchise he helped create.

“

Blizzard arrogance has reached new heights.

Red 5 CEO and former Diablo II producer Mark Kern tweeted, "Gotta say, that Jay Wilson, never having been at Blizzard for D1 and D2 and never having met Dave Brevik, has no place to say what he did.

"Dave Brevik created 2 genre-busting, award winning, world-loved Diablo games. Jay Wilson has done ____ with Diablo 3. Fill in the blanks.

"Blizzard arrogance has reached new heights," he concluded.

Brevik is currently company president of Gazillion Entertainment, which is working on the upcoming Marvel Heroes. While the Diablo-style MMO has no estimated release date right now, it's been referred to in the past as "the spiritual successor" to Diablo II.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Diablo III Has More than 10 Million Players

In its second quarter earnings report today, Activision Blizzard confirmed that as of July, more than 10 million people have played Diablo III. This is up four million from the figures announced after the game’s launch and supports the game’s continued success at retail.

According to an Activision Blizzard earnings call that followed, the company said that Diablo III is the best-selling PC game of the first half of 2012 and once again reiterated that changes are coming to the game in the future. Elsewhere in the earnings report, Activision Blizzard also revealed that World of Warcraft subscriptions are down by more than one million.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com