Blizzard: Authenticator Required for Diablo 3 RMAH

By Kevin Parrish
published

Using Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House will require an authenticator, says Blizzard.

Over the weekend, Blizzard said it updated the Terms of Use for Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House. It now states that players will be required to have a Battle.net Authenticator or Battle.net Mobile Authenticator attached to their Battle.net account to use Battle.net Balance.

"For clarity, this means you’ll need to have an Authenticator to add to your balance via Battle.net Account Management or to send the proceeds of your real-money auction house sales to your Battle.net Balance," the company said in a forum sticky.

The news isn't surprising given recent reports of account hacking. Diablo 3 players have complained of missing gold and virtual items while others have watched the hacking in real-time. Blizzard has warned customers to use a more sophisticated password, to keep it original to Battle.net, and to use one of the two Battle.net authenticators in order to safeguard their account.

Blizzard said for those who previously added Battle.net Balance to their account prior to the change, they will be able to use it to make make eligible purchases on Battle.net and in the auction house without attaching an Authenticator. However, an Authenticator will be required to add to the balance in the future.

"While we understand that this creates an extra step for players during the login process, we believe this added layer of account protection will help foster a safer auction house environment for all of our players," the company said.

Blizzard's Real Money Auction House for Diablo 3 is slated to go live on Tuesday, June 12. It was originally set to launch one week after the game went retail, but was pushed back to May 29. So far the company seems to be on track for the June 12 launch.

Kevin Parrish
40 Comments Comment from the forums
  • crisan_tiberiu
    @ 60$ / game, Activision/Blizzard could have give every Diablo 3 buyer an authenticator... really, how hungry can they be for money?
    Reply
  • Darkerson
    crisan_tiberiu@ 60$ / game, Activision/Blizzard could have give every Diablo 3 buyer an authenticator... really, how hungry can they be for money?Well since the word Activision is in there, that should be self explanatory. Not enough money in the world to make them happy.
    Reply
  • LOL u havent seen nothing yet! Just wait n give them time to come up with more ways to nickle n dime u
    to death. :p
    Reply
  • Eman25th
    9374345 said:
    @ 60$ / game, Activision/Blizzard could have give every Diablo 3 buyer an authenticator... really, how hungry can they be for money?

    huhh? authenticator app for any phone is free, you can also call in for free and get your authentication code over the phone now. even if you do buy the little thumb drive authenticator for $6.50 (which i dont thing anyone buys anymore) its worth for not losing your account or possibly Your REAL hard earned money on the RMAH.

    But yes they are gonna make a TON of money from the RMAH probably close to if not more than a small monthly fee.
    Reply
  • Well you are not forced to buy an physical Authenticator. Since it can be done on mobile devices too. Or my preferred one is WinAuth, its java-based and runs on the Computer. Best part about it, it automatically Copies the Code currently active so you can just paste it. And its in no way compromising your security. At last not as long as you PC is well secured.
    What may not be the case for most users... But Since they offer Mobile Authenticator for Android and iOS it should be no Problem for anyone to get their hands on one.
    Reply
  • kartu
    DarkersonWell since the word Activision is in there, that should be self explanatory. Not enough money in the world to make them happy.You do realize that it's a myth, don't you?
    Blizzard was asking for more money left and right way before merger with activision.
    Not to mention, they're still to autonomous companies.
    Reply
  • wildkitten
    The question is, will they then turn around and cripple the authenticators useful like they did for logging into WoW by having it not ask if the system thinks your account is being logged in from the usual location? And yes, I know this can be disabled. The issue is the idiocy of this being implemented in the first place since no one asked for it. Not to mention, this "feature" was enabled by default and had to go into account management to have it ask every time a log in was done. When D3 was released, it again defaulted to being enabled so had to go into account management, again, and disable this useless feature.

    And I guess the next question is this, since duping was only kept from happening for about 4 weeks, how many of the items on the RMAH will be legitimate?

    Could Blizzard have been anymore unprepared for this games launch?
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    lol at this rate they are gonna kill the whole franchise.
    Reply
  • Flameout
    Tomfreaklol at this rate they are gonna kill the whole franchise.don't you mean kill it more. it died when they decided to use an aesthetic that was contrary to its theme
    Reply
  • crisan_tiberiu
    Eman25thhuhh? authenticator app for any phone is free, you can also call in for free and get your authentication code over the phone now. even if you do buy the little thumb drive authenticator for $6.50 (which i dont thing anyone buys anymore) its worth for not losing your account or possibly Your REAL hard earned money on the RMAH.But yes they are gonna make a TON of money from the RMAH probably close to if not more than a small monthly fee.I have a Nokia 3110 as a phone. So you say i should upgrade to an android phone to get a free authenticator from Blizz? no ty, and yes, i am cheap i want a phone that i use it for talking, not to surf the net, not to play angry birds, not to log to facebook/twitter or run an authenticator for Diablo 3
    Reply