Earlier this week, Blizzard announced that the newly released 1.0.3 patch for Diablo III put in some restrictions to folks who bought the digital edition of the action-RPG. Among those restrictions were limiting players to the Starter Edition content for as long as 72 hours until they are verified. That means players can"t level up beyond level 13 and can only play the game up to Act One and the Skeleton King boss.
At the time, Blizzard said this move was made "... to combat fraud and other malicious activities that can weaken everyone"s play experience." Now the company is backtracking on those original forum posts. In a statement sent to Kotaku, Blizzard said the level 13 and Act 1 caps were in fact bugs.
Blizzard now says this was an "unintended consequence" of their new security policies regarding the digital editions of the game. It added, "We are working to correct this as soon as possible and will provide another update when we have more details to share." The note added that the other 7 hours restrictions are still in place for digital download buyers of Diablo III. That includes no access to the game"s auction house, no Global Play access and more.
Blizzard has also deleted the original message board post that announced these restrictions, including the level 13 and Act One caps. It"s clear that the company is trying to do some damage control in this particular case and it"s a little embarrassing to see the company go from saying these two restrictions were features to saying they are bugs.
Source: Kotaku