Blizzard Forces Regional Language in Diablo III

Many Diablo III players are reporting that their client is restricting them from playing if they aren’t using the native language version. Upon attempting to connect, those with a language setting that differs from their region are greeted with several errors: 81, 82 and 84. They all read:

“The client does not match the account’s native language. Please, use the game’s native client.”

Understandably this has drawn a mass of complaints from gamers from all over the world. Often it’s from those in countries like Russia and Brazil who want to play the game in English.

While there were some reports of this early in the game’s release, they’ve been appearing in droves over the past 24 hours. This appears to be due to the language locks being implemented in a few specific regions. The curious thing is that they weren’t active from launch, but brought into play a short time after.

Blizzard’s only real comment so far has been that everything is working as intended, further angering affected gamers. This suggests that as it stands, the publisher has no plans to remove the restrictions.

For now, mass complaints and customer support tickets are being sent Blizzard’s way. It’ll be interesting to see how it responds.