Diablo Immortal’s “Blessing Of The Worthy” Legendary Gem Could Face Class Action Lawsuit For False Advertising

Blizzard just can’t catch a break. Of course, that may have to do with the fact that they keep doing ridiculous things. This time around, the company is being investigated by a class action specialty firm regarding accusations of false advertisement for an item in the Diablo Immortal store. The item in question is the “Blessing of the Worthy” Legendary Gem, which players paid a pretty penny for. In some cases, the gem came in bundles that could cost over $100.

The thing about this particular item is that players were incentivized to buy it believing that it would offer them a pretty big stat boost in the game when used. According to the item’s original description, it offered players “the chance to deal damage equal to their maximum health” – according to Polygon, a 20% chance to do damage worth 12% of their maximum health. This is apparently true – when the gem is at level two, but it can be leveled up again, and at level three it actually bases the stat increase on the player’s current health. At that point, if a player’s health is anything less than 100%, they’re going to get diminished returns.

The problem is that the gem’s description said nothing about this. As far as players knew, it based the power increase on their maximum possible health. Players were, of course, unhappy when they realized what was going on and issued complaints. Blizzard’s response was to announce they would change the item’s description to describe the actual effect at level three. The company also gave all players some free gems.

Of course, that’s all the absolute least the company could possibly do (an that doesn't even take into account people that wouldn't have bought it or gems at ALL had the description been right), so it’s probably not shocking that the Communications Workers of America pointed this issue out to class action firm Migliacco & Rathod LLP, who are now looking for players who purchased the gems in question to contact them. The company has a form on its site where players can put in their details, referring to what happened as “essentially amount[ing] to a bait-and-switch”, noting that the item was advertised with one effect and ended up being something else.

Note: Activision Blizzard is still under investigation by the state of California for serious harassment charges. CEO Bobby Kotick is alleged to have known about such actions within his company – and performed some himself – and shielded the perpetrators from consequences.