Diablo 3 account bans, War Z apolgises and more

Diablo III account bans:
In a post to the Diablo 3 forum, community manager Lylirra reveals, “We’ve recently issued account bans to several thousand Diablo III players who were found to be using botting programs while playing.”
“As always, maintaining a stable, safe, and enjoyable online environment for legitimate players is very important to us, and we’ll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and take action as needed.”

Clearly botting is a big issue for Blizzard, especially with Diablo 3′s economy tied to the Real Money Auction House. With that in mind, it seems strange that they’ve taken so long to take such a big swing at it. While Lylirra mentions later in the post that “this isn’t our first rodeo,” admitting that the company just hadn’t been very vocal about previous efforts, surely in-game reporting should be a standard feature by now?


The War Z apologises:
The War Z apologises to players who “misread” false Steam information, adds controversial microtransaction for respawning characters
Following it’s “Foundation Release” and appearance on Steam Monday, it has been at the top of Steam's Top Sellers list. But dig deeper and the game appears to be generating no small amount of controversy. The forums, both on Steam and The War Z’s website have been full of complaints and questions as to the accuracy of the game’s claimed key features.

In its initial Steam listing, the game fails to make the distinction between currently included and upcoming features. It listed multiple worlds between “100 and 400 square kilometers,” the ability to spend experience points on skills and the chance to host private servers. None of these had yet been implemented, and The War Z’s Steam page has now been updated to reflect that private servers are an upcoming feature, and that only one game world is actually available. The “About the Game” blurb now reads, “our first map – ‘Colorado’ is over 100 sq. km in size.” The section about spending experience points has simply been removed.

The War Z’s executive producer Sergey Titov posted on the game’s forum, apologising to people who had “misread” the information. “It was clear that there were a number of customers that felt that information about the game was presented in a way that could have allowed for multiple interpretations.” “We’ve taken steps to correct this and format information presented on our Steam Store page in a way so it provides more clear information about game features that are present in the Foundation Release and what to expect in the coming weeks.”

According to players, not only are there no 100 player servers or “Hardcore” game mode, but it’s also being claimed that while the map is technically over 100 sq. km, much of it is greyed out, with the actual playable area being around 72 sq. km.

With all of this going on, it would make make sense to potentially hold off an any potentially unpopular changes to the game itself. Instead, Kotaku are reporting that a recent patch has upped the character respawn time from 60 minutes to four hours, and added a new microtransaction to let you skip the wait completely for 50GC (around $0.40) per spawn.

I have also watched a few videos online, and have got to say.... the game looks like garbage. When The War Z was originally announced they stated that it had been in development for 2 years before Day Z broke onto the scene. I can no longer believe that with where this game is currently. Now looking even more forward to when Day Z is officially released.

Update: The War Z has been removed from Steam's new release list. Valve has provided a statement regarding what's going on:
"From time to time a mistake can be made and one was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build. Those who purchased the game and wish to continue playing it via Steam may do so. Those who purchased the title via Steam and are unhappy with what they received may seek a refund by creating a ticket at our support site here." https://support.steampowered.com/newticket.php

As of now, The War Z is still listed on Steam, but it can no longer be purchased. Since the "Foundation Release" of The War Z on December 17 it was the top selling game on Steam.