More and more people are buying their PC games simply by going to a website, typing in their credit card information and then downloading a client. Most people expect to play the full game when that happens. Now it turns out Blizzard is keeping people who buy the digital version of the action-RPG sequel Diablo III from getting access to the full version of the game for as long as three days.
In a post on the game"s official message boards, Blizzard stated that with the new 1.0.3 patch that was released earlier this week, it also puts in a restriction for players who buy the digital edition. It limits them to the Starter Edition content for as long as 72 hours. 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, among other restrictions.
In a follow-up post, Blizzard stated that they put in the new digital game policy " ... to combat fraud and other malicious activities that can weaken everyone"s play experience." However, it is certainly an inconvenience to all those folks who buy the game legitimately and then are stuck with playing through a small portion of the game while having to wait until Blizzard approves them.
Source: Diablo III website