Gamers rage as Diablo III servers collapse

CALIFORNIA - The servers supporting long-awaited role-playing game Diablo 3 went online on Monday night, but then promptly crashed under the sheer weight of global demand.

Players found themselves unable to access the game, many repeatedly receiving the now notorious "error37" message, informing customers that their connection had failed.

The hashtag #error37 immediately began trending on Twitter, attracting a mix of furious complaints and ironic comments. "Man, Diablo 3 is super hard. I've been playing for 30 minutes and haven't even defeated the login screen," tweeted one gamer.

The dungeon exploration game is set to be one of the biggest releases of the year, and fans of the series have been waiting more than a decade for the latest instalment, reported The Guardian.

However, in a controversial bid to combat piracy, the title requires players to log on to developer Blizzard's servers before they can enter the game - even if they only want to try the single-player offline campaign. This has created a bottleneck that the company's online infrastructure has so far struggled to cope with.

In April, Blizzard "stress tested" the Diablo servers with an open beta, and reports indicated that error37s were cropping up at this stage, too.

However, as Activision discovered with the stuttering global roll-out of its Call of Duty: Elite online service last year, controlled tests don't always prepare for the sheer weight of worldwide demand.

In fact, Blizzard had already warned gamers in its online Diablo 3 launch guide that there might be delays with logging in on launch day.

Blizzard has released the following statement: "Due to high concurrency the login servers are currently at full capacity. This may cause delays in the login process, account pages and web services. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience while this is being resolved."

It is expected that, over the next 48 hours, as demand settles and the infrastructure is improved, the log in process will become much smoother.

However, the situation will no doubt put the whole issue of online authentication back into the spotlight. AGENCIES



Source:  http://www.todayonline.com/TechandDigital/Digital/EDC120516-0000149/Gamers-rage-as-Diablo-III-servers-collapse