Diablo Immortal Players Facing “Orb Debt” After Third-Party Purchases

It should come as no surprise that something is happening again with Diablo: Immortal. However, this time, it is not all Blizzard’s fault…at least not for the part of the story where players purchased eternal orbs from third-party sellers instead of the official store.

Image Credits | Blizzard

The rise of fake whales

While Diablo 4 monetization is set to be purely cosmetic, at least for now, when it comes to Diablo: Immortal, everyone who played the game is aware of just how heavily monetized this game is, and if you want to be competitive in any way, you will have to drop some serious money on the game.

One of the most efficient ways to strengthen your character is to purchase eternal orbs from the store, and you can get a pack of 60 for $1 or a pack of 7200 for $100. While this might seem expensive at first, it is only the tip of the iceberg, which is why there was a Diablo: Immortal p2w backlash that Blizzard really didn’t care about, and they just continued to take money from anyone willing to give them.

Since the eternal orbs are quite expensive, it should come as no surprise that if players were offered 7200 orbs for as low as $10 from third-party sellers, they would immediately take that deal. Naturally, this would seem suspicious to most people, but the way the third-party sellers were masking their reasoning of low pricing is either due to gift cards that they had around which they couldn’t use anywhere else or the good ol’ region price difference story.

In most cases, the orbs were also purchased on the customer’s account by requiring account information, which is immediately a red flag. Surprisingly, the accounts were not getting stolen, and they were indeed given the eternal orbs they paid for. Some players even purchased millions of eternal orbs from these third-party sellers, allowing them to access the best builds in the game overnight easily.

Blizzard strikes back

One would think that Blizzard would investigate this situation, but they did not even have to because the awareness was brought to their doorstep in the form of chargebacks. The reason Blizzard was getting loads of chargebacks was that all of the orbs that were purchased via third-party vendors were done so with stolen credit cards.

With that in mind, everyone who purchased orbs in such a manner was breaking TOS with real-money transactions, and even worse, they were co-participants of actual theft since stolen credit cards were used on their accounts.

Image Credits | Blizzard

Now, if you would see this situation, your assumption would be that everyone who purchased orbs was suspended permanently, right? Well, not really, because Blizzard had a different way of dealing with these players. Instead of suspending them, they instead made their eternal orb balance go into negative numbers, and they would not be able to access the majority of Diablo: Immortal’s content until they paid off their debt.

Remember when we mentioned that some players purchased millions of eternal orbs? Well, one player is in negative 2.5 million eternal orbs, which is roughly $35,000 that he will have to pay off before he can do anything on his account…or wait…does he have to?

Fake whales in PvP

Even after the restrictions to most content in the game, Blizzard decided to do one extremely scummy thing, which is to let the fake whales participate in battlegrounds, even if they have a negative orb balance. Since those players who purchased lots of upgrades with eternal orbs have nothing to do but PvP, there are way more plays smashing those who spent less on the game, and Blizzard probably did this to motivate those who are losing to spend some as well.

Because PvP is still possible, and also because it is probably the most fun thing about being a whale, real or fake, there are hundreds of accounts available for a low price on various sites. While they do not have access to most of the game, PvP domination is something that always sells.

Are players at fault for getting their accounts restricted?

Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt. Everyone who purchases something that is significantly under the official price that also requires access to their account should be punished somehow. While Blizzard might not have fully committed to banning their accounts forever, they at least did something.

After these events, playing Diablo: Immortal might be even more expensive if you want to win at PvP, and everyone who wants to play a Diablo game without spending money but still has some kind of competitive edge should check out the best Diablo 2 builds instead, where you can grind out the gear without spending a dime and have just as much fun.