UPDATE #1 - Blizzard has posted a faq on their official website for more information, read more about it here.
This does not look to be good, I will keep you guys updated as more information is available.
Players and Friends,
Even when you are in the business of fun, not every week ends up being fun. This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened.
At this time, we’ve found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed.
Some data was illegally accessed, including a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users, outside of China. For players on North American servers (which generally includes players from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) the answer to the personal security question, and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts.
We also know that cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords) for players on North American servers were taken. We use Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually. As a precaution, however, we recommend that players on North American servers change their password. Please click this link to change your password. Moreover, if you have used the same or similar passwords for other purposes, you may want to consider changing those passwords as well.
In the coming days, we'll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we'll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software. As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password. We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here.
We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened.
Sincerely, Mike Morhaime
Finally the floodgates on patch 1.0.4 are about to open.
The Diablo III developers have been hard at work on some exciting new features and updates for the game. Many of you have asked for more details, and we're busily preparing several developer blogs filled with information on what's coming in patch 1.0.4. In the meantime, here's an overview of the information we're planning to share here on the Diablo III community site in the not-too-distant future.
Please keep in mind that this list isn't set in stone, but it should provide a useful preview of what we'll be revealing in the days ahead.
We're also planning to run some interviews and developer chats surrounding patch 1.0.4, and we’ll be sharing those on the Diablo III front page. Be on the lookout, as we'd love to get you involved in any live chats we host.
As always, your constructive feedback is very much appreciated. Stay tuned for the updates to follow!
Update 8/6/2012: Game limits have been re-enabled.
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In the near future, we'll be re-enabling the limit on how many games a player can create within a certain amount of time. We've further tuned and tested the conditions that trigger this limit to ensure, as much as possible, that it only affects those abusing the Diablo III game service in a way that violates the Terms of Use – for example, by using bots that create games in rapid succession.
The use of bots not only impacts the stability of the game service, but it also has an impact on the player-driven economy. While we regularly take action against accounts for the use of unauthorized third-party programs and bots, this additional measure will help us further preserve and protect the integrity of the game and economy in between ban waves.
Once this change goes live, we're looking for your feedback to help ensure that the limit is working as intended. If you encounter the "Input limit reached" message and feel you should not have, please let us know how many games you were creating and why. This information will help us ensure the limit minimally impacts legitimate players while still protecting the game against bots.
We'll continue to tweak the game limit as necessary, as well as continue to go after the few cheaters and botters that are out there in other ways. Our goal is to help ensure that Diablo III continues to be a fun gaming environment for all of our players, and we're looking forward to hearing your feedback on this change once it goes live.
We will update this post and unlock the thread once game limits are re-enabled.
After a long wait character profiles are now available on the official website.
Yup, they’re ready.
All you need to do is log in with your Battle.net account (look for the login box in the upper-right hand corner of your screen) to access character profiles from any page on the Diablo III community site. Make sure that you've selected your Diablo III BattleTag in the login box, and, once you've selected your BattleTag, choose 'view profile'.
Profiles give you the power to:
We like that profiles provide for easy sharing, comparing, and refining of your heroes as you pursue monster-slaying mastery. In fact, we like profiles so much that we plan to add even more functionality to them as Diablo III evolves, including detailed statistics and tabs for achievements and artisans.
If there’s something else you’d like to see appear in a character profile, please make sure to let us know in the comments below or on our website forums.
Happy Clicking!
-Blizzard Web Team
D3RMT has many new features on the horizon focusing primarily on the community. Let's take a look at some of the new and upcoming features.
Today we updated profiles to provide a news feed system such as those found on many social networks. This feed currently displays your posts, threads, ratings, comments, sale history, auction house favorites, and auction house subscriptions. In the future, more items will be added to this feed which you will learn about in just a bit.
Profiles will be receiving a tab for screenshots and videos. You will be able to upload your screenshots and link to YouTube videos here, as well as view screenshots and videos on other user profiles. Screenshots and videos added will be featured on your profile feed.
Many actions throughout the website will award an achievement. Some achievements will grant you a reward such as in-game items, gold, or crafting. Achievements earned will be featured on your profile feed as well as an achievement tab on your profile.
The website will be gaining an entirely new section dedicated entirely to the community. Newly added screenshots and videos will be visible here where other users can up- or down-vote submissions, and the screenshot and video with the highest net votes for that day will be featured in a more prominent display. This is just one example of what you will be able to find in the community section.
We have begun working on a website that is optimized for mobile browsers.