After a decade of waiting, anxious Diablo fans seem to have reached the end of their patience. As the number of complaints from South Korea's online gamers is constantly increasing, the Korea Fair Trade Commission announced on Tuesday, May 29, that it launched an investigation into the Seoul Office of Blizzard Entertainment, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The investigation into Blizzard Entertainment, the U.S. developer of the popular blockbuster Diablo online computer games, aims to determine whether the company violated South Korea's electronic commerce law.
Overwhelming Traffic
The alarming number of complaints stemmed from the fact that there are so many people eager to play the new iteration of Diablo, Diablo III, that computer servers and networks are overwhelmed by the traffic. Diablo III's simultaneous global launch on May 15 got Korean gamers on edge, complaining about a server crash caused by too much simultaneous traffic. U.S. gamers have also whined about getting thrown off the network right in the middle of a game. On Amazon.com, for instance, reviewers have torn Blizzard apart for requiring single-player mode gamers to be logged on to the Internet in order to play Diablo III.
Some Korean gamers even asked for a refund, but the company's policy does not offer a refund once the product has already been used. On the other hand, South Korea's law guarantees a refund within seven days of purchase, provided that the problem with the product is not caused by the consumer.
Great Demand
According to the company, a whopping 3.5 million copies of the new Diablo III iteration were sold on the first day, while another 1.2 million gamers worldwide had already received the game as part of a 12-month subscription package to World of Warcraft, another smashing hit from Blizzard Entertainment.
As the Wall Street Journal notes, there are two ways now to purchase such "sophisticated games": purchasing the game upfront on a DVD, or as part of a download. That costs roughly $60, after which gamers buy subscriptions in order to play online against other gamers from around the world.
So far, South Korea accounted for approximately 10 percent of the Diablo III sales, after thousands of Koreans waited in line to buy the game on the eve of the launch. According to Seoul-based research firm Gametrics, which focuses on PC games, Diablo III accounted for more than 35 percent of the online PC games played on Tuesday.
The storm of complaints over Diablo III, however, is far from over. One angry gamer said he "waited 12 years to play Diablo III," and after the game finally launched he still had to wait to play it. The gamer posted an online petition last week, demanding a refund because he could not get access to the server. Nearly 3,500 people have supported the petition so far, notes the Journal. Faced with increasing complaints, Blizzard said last week that it planned to set up more servers to handle the growing demand in Asia.
