Blizzard Says Lawsuit Is False, Without Merit

Benjamin Bell, the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard for “negligence” regarding security concerns for consumers has recently made headlines over the weekend. In response to the accusations, Blizzard sent out a general PR statement claiming that Bell's stance is false and that the the lawsuit is completely and entirely without merit.

The suit was originally made public back on November 8th, courtesy of Courthouse News. Bell claims that account security when playing Blizzard's games online isn't guaranteed unless you purchase an authenticator. There were hundreds of claims of compromised accounts being reported shortly after the launch of Diablo III, to which Blizzard claimed that there were only a small percentage who had lost their account to “traditional means”.

Blizzard also stated back in late May that all accounts that had been compromised were not using authenticators.

IGN [via Lazygamer] reached out to Blizzard to ask them about their stance on Bell's class action lawsuit, and Blizzard responded, with the highlights of the response listed below...

"This suit is without merit and filled with patently false information, and we will vigorously defend ourselves through the appropriate legal channels”...

The suit also claims that the Battle.net Authenticator is required in order to maintain a minimal level of security on the player’s Battle.net account information that’s stored on Blizzard’s network systems. This claim is also completely untrue and apparently based on a misunderstanding of the Authenticator’s purpose. The Battle.net Authenticator is an optional tool that players can use to further protect their Battle.net accounts in the event that their login credentials are compromised outside of Blizzard’s network infrastructure. Available as a physical device or as a free app for iOS or Android devices, it offers players an added level of security against account-theft attempts that stem from sources such as phishing attacks, viruses packaged with seemingly harmless file downloads, and websites embedded with malicious code.”

Bell claimed that playing Blizzard's games, particularly Diablo III, without an authenticator made consumers susceptible to account theft and/or compromises.

If we follow the facts, Blizzard has made many public announcements about the inclusion of authenticators to protect accounts, in fact, while they mentioned that it's not 100% foolproof they continually recommended for players to attach a physical authenticator to their Battle.net account.

The always-on DRM really came back to bite Blizzard in the butt, and while suing people is nothing I'm fond of, I would like to see consumers get some kind of resolve out of the situation, especially for casual gamers who had no idea that Diablo III would be such a breeding ground for cyber-crime.