Blizzard to help Aussie Diablo III GAME customers

Blizzard is extending a helping hand to Australian GAME customers whose Diablo III preorders will not be honoured due to the retailer entering administration.

Posting on the official Diablo III forums today, Blizzard announced that it would let any Australian GAME customers with a preorder/prepurchase receipt of Diablo III dated prior to May 15, 2012, purchase a digital version of Diablo III and credit them for their initial purchase.

The offer is available anytime before May 21, 2012. Eligible players can download the game from www.diablo3.com and then submit their GAME Australia preorder receipt to Blizzard before June 30, 2012. Blizzard will then credit back the amount paid in advance to GAME Australia for Diablo III. The credit will be applied to the payment method used for the digital purchase.

Blizzard will post further details on the Diablo III forums, explaining how eligible players can submit their preorder receipts.

The administrators of GAME Australia today announced that Diablo III is under a limited release to customers who preordered it in certain GAME stores across the country.

"I regret that Diablo III isn't available across the whole network of stores, and to all customers who have pre-ordered; however, the stock on hand represents the total stock ordered prior to the appointment of voluntary administrators yesterday, and unfortunately there are insufficient funds on hand to purchase any additional copies," PricewaterhouseCoopers joint administrator Kate Warwick said.

PwC is advising all affected customers to contact the GAME store where they initially made the order to check whether Diablo III is available in that participating store. If the game is not available, customers are instructed to submit a claim to PwC via GAME Australia's website.