Blizzard Quote [source]

Drop by the Blizzard booth at gamescom 2013 and you’ll have the chance to prove your worth in the Burning Hells – Diablo III is not only on PC, but also on PlayStation 3 for the first time in Europe ahead of its release on September 3!

Reforged for the console experience, Diablo III on PlayStation 3 brings co-operative demon-slaying to a whole new level. Bring your friends and get settled on our comfy sofas – but don’t relax too much, because humanity needs you to battle the legions of evil. Curious to find out how the famous, frantic mouse-clicking experience of Diablo on PC works on console? Now’s your chance to find out!

That’s not all the Diablo-related entertainment you can expect at gamescom. We’ve got live music performances featuring songs in the theme of – and directly taken from – our games. Check our schedule to make sure you catch the shows.

The world-renowned Blizzard costume contest takes place on our stage on Saturday August 24, and last year the winning costume was a terrific female barbarian outfit. Will we see another Diablo-themed winner this year? Only time will tell – be in the crowd to find out who’s going to win a trip for two to this year’s BlizzCon in reward for their mighty efforts.

And finally, if you’d like to meet some of the Diablo development team and grab their signatures for your collection, we’ve got several signing sessions scheduled throughout the event. Bring along a favorite memento to be signed, or pick up one of the free cards.

Check out the full schedule for all the timings – we hope to see you there!

Blizzard Quote [source]

Watch Gabe, Tycho, and Jamie from Penny Arcade team up with Scott Kurtz, creator of PvP Online, to try out the new console controls on the PS3 version of Diablo III.  

Together, they track down Leoric the Skeleton King on a four-player rampage of demon-slaying, trash-talking, and ninja-looting. We don't want to spoil the video for you, but suffice it to say shenanigans are on the rise in New Tristram.

Watch the short highlight reel of their hijinks-infused playthrough here:

Or, if you’d rather get comfortable and watch the full two-hour playthrough, it's right over here:

Blizzard Quote [source]

An exciting new contest is coming to this year’s show: the BlizzCon2013 Talent Contest! Blizzard gamers are an incredibly talented bunch, and this is your opportunity to shine a spotlight on your skills and celebrate Blizzard gaming culture along with BlizzCon attendees and viewers from around the world.

Can you play the Diablo theme on a 12-string guitar? Can you sing Lament of the Highborn? Are you the living embodiment of Sarah Kerrigan? Does your band play a Blizzard-themed song you can’t wait for everyone to hear? Well, we can’t wait to watch you act, sing, dance, and strut your stuff live on stage at BlizzCon 2013!

To be considered, you’ll need to create a 2-minute video of you (or your band, troupe, or what have you) performing your Blizzard-themed talent, post it on YouTube, and submit a link (or if you’re part of a troupe, have your troupe’s spokesperson upload it). Below are some examples of the kind of acts we have in mind.

Remember, what follows are just some ideas and guidelines. We know you have skills we haven’t even dreamed of, so surprise us! We’re eagerly looking forward to seeing you in action.

• Drama! Re-enact a scene or monologue from a Blizzard game
• Comedy! Make us laugh Blizzard-inspired stand-up or sketch comedy
• Music! Perform an instrumental or vocal cover of a Blizzard song, or write and perform your own original composition
• Dance! Come up with an original dance routine set to Blizzard music or original Blizzard-themed compositions

Please don’t limit yourself, and don’t be afraid to show us your best, because we aren’t selecting finalists based on any pre-existing categories. Instead finalists will be selected based on talent, live performance (remember, you could be performing on stage!), humor, entertainment, originality, creativity, and strong Blizzard theming.

Submissions are now open, so check out the rules, then head over to the contest page (scroll down) to sign up.

Don't delay! Sign ups close August 6!

Please feel free to email any questions you might have to BlizzConContest@blizzard.com!

See you in the limelight!

Blizzard Quote [source]

Over the past year, we've made some changes to our account rollback policy for players in the Asia, Americas, and Europe regions. These updates were an added step in protecting the in-game economy from the noted rise of false compromised account claims by players attempting to duplicate items. To date, these policy changes have been effective in helping to reduce the number of duplicated items in the game.

On August 6, we'll be further updating the policy to include a cap on gold and commodities that are restored as part of the process, adding further protections for the game economy.

[What's Changing Starting Tuesday, August 6]

All character equipment (including weapons and armor) restored via the Diablo III rollback service will continue to be bound to the restored account. The restored items cannot be traded with other players or posted on the auction house, but they can still be shared with other characters on the account and sold to merchant NPCs.

Additionally, the below changes to gold and commodities restoration will also occur:

• Gems:

  • Each gem type (Amethyst, Emerald, Ruby,Topaz) up to Perfect Square will be restored up to a total maximum count of 500 of that type (e.g. 500 Flawless Amethysts). Marquise gems will be restored in full, as they are Bind-on-Account. Higher level gems will be restored up to the following limits:
    • Radiant Square – 250
    • Star – 100
    • Flawless Star – 50
    • Perfect Star – 25
    • Radiant Star – 10

• Crafting Materials:

  • Each type of crafting material will be restored up to a total maximum count of 500 (e.g. 500 Subtle Essence).
  • Each type of training material will be restored up to a total of 500 (e.g. 500 Tomes of Blacksmithing).
  • Each type of crafting plan will be restored up to a total of 1 (e.g. 1 plan for Cain’s Fate).

• Gold:

  • Gold restored will be limited to 10 million.

As always we are committed to continuing to monitor the overall health and economy of the game and make additional tweaks if necessary.

[Protecting Your Account]

Considering that the rollback service is intended to help players whose accounts have been compromised, we obviously wish that no one ever needed to use it. The best way to help protect yourself from account compromise is to secure your PC and Battle.net account, for example by adding a Battle.net Authenticator. While no security measure is completely foolproof, we've often found that many accounts are compromised a second time simply because players do not take any action to protect themselves after being compromised the first time.

To learn more about the Battle.net Authenticator and some best practices for securing your PC against viruses and malware, check out the links below.

Blizzard Quote [source]

During tomorrow's scheduled maintenance, we will be applying a hotfix in both the Americas and European gameplay regions, increasing the maximum stack size for gold listings on the real-money auction house from 10 million to 50 million *. (As with previous changes, the minimum price per stack will remain at $0.25.)

For those who may be curious, this change is being made to ensure that the price of gold in the real-money house remains competitive compared to third-party sites. Since one of the goals of the real-money auction house is to provide players a safe place in which to both buy and sell commodities, we want to make sure it continues to be useful and that don’t players to feel forced to use third-party sites simply because it's the cheaper option. Also, for those who may be concerned, please rest assured that the bug which caused the gold dupe back in May (when we raised the stack size cap to 10 million) has indeed been resolved and should not resurface as a result of this hotfix. Even so, we will be conducting extensive testing in the live game environment during maintenance before bringing the servers up to verify that no new issues were caused as the result of raising the cap to 50 million.

Once this hotfix is live, we’ll post an update to this thread as well as on the front page of the community site so you won’t miss out. Thanks!

* Please note that this change will only apply to gold auctions created after the hotfix has gone live; any auction posted beforehand, as well as those still active when the hotfix is implemented, will continue to be valued at 10,000,000 gold per stack.