Player trading has been temporarily paused in Diablo IV after developer Blizzard was made aware of an exploit that was allowing players to duplicate gold and items through some simple steps.

The exploit involved two players initiating a trade, where one would put their items and/or gold in the trading slot for the respective player. This same player would then forcibly quit the game, and find their traded items back in their inventory after logging back in, while the player on the receiving end of the trade got to keep the items, too.

Since Diablo IV lacks any official trading hub, a market for items has been set up outside of the game through channels such as Discord, where this exploit has quickly shattered the established market pricing. One trade, which took place before trading was disabled, shows a crossbow being sold for a ridiculous sum of 30 billion gold. Since players are freely allowed to bid extraordinary amounts of gold for items (since none of it will be lost in a trade), many players looking to initiate legitimate transactions are being shut out.

Blizzard has responded by closing down trading entirely as it investigates, stating on its forums that it plans to ban players it finds willingly engaging in trying to replicate this exploit. In a clarification on the game's subreddit, Blizzard also stated that it will not take action on players unwittingly trading with those making use of the hack, which the community has openly welcomed.

This type of exploit only exists because Diablo IV moved away from the formal trading foundations found in the early years of Diablo III and its Auction House. With player trading still viable, the opportunity for bad-faith transactions is prevalent when trading exists solely on the basis of trust between strangers. Diablo IV straddles the line between a single-player adventure and live-service game, with Blizzard designing content to keep players engaged for months at a time, so it's important that it protects the balance of the experience by squashing exploits such as this.

Diablo IV is out on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. In GameSpot's Diablo IV review, we said, "Coupled with a new benchmark for storytelling in the franchise, and a solid narrative foundation for any potential new adventures, it's easy to see Diablo IV as something I'll regularly check-in on for a long time to come."