Blizzard halts Diablo 4 trading again, warns that players who take advantage of a new duplication exploit will be 'actioned'

Diablo 4 character in metallic armor with demons behind — (Image credit: Blizzard)

Blizzard has put a halt to trading in Diablo 4 while it works to fix a duplication exploit that came to light over the weekend, and warned that players caught taking advantage of the bug could find themselves in trouble.

"We’ve suspended player trading in Diablo 4 until further notice due to a duplication exploit," community manager Rich Bantegui wrote in the Blizzard forums. "We are working on a fix to amend this issue and will update you once we’ve reinstated the ability to trade. We will continue to monitor this activity to ensure a healthy playing experience for all.

"Any account that engages in gold and item duplication exploits will be actioned in accordance with our End User License Agreement."

To be specific, Blizzard's EULA prohibits the creation, use, or sale of duplicated items, those being "any in-game item created or copied by exploiting a design flaw, undocumented problem, or program bug in the Platform." Penalties for doing so could include a suspension or outright ban from the game. That seems like a pretty high-risk for relatively little reward: As we noted last week, Diablo 4's current season drops so much loot through normal gameplay that it almost feels like something is broken, although Blizzard insists that's not the case.

This is the second time since the release of Diablo 4 that Blizzard has been forced to suspend player trading because of a duplication bug: The first suspension occurred during the game's first season in August. And, much as it was in that case, quite a number of players on Reddit seem surprised to discover that trading in the game exists at all—and for those who take advantage of it, summoning materials for bosses, rather than gold or gear, seems to be the only thing that's in real demand.

There's no indication from Blizzard at this point as to when Diablo 4 trading will be restored, but the first suspension took roughly a day to straighten out, so hopefully a fix for this new exploit will roll out soon. We'll update when it happens.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.