On the issue of international availability of the Blizzard Authenticators, as reported by MMO-Champion, this came from a blue post:
“We’re also aware that non-U.S.-based players on our North American realms were unable to purchase the Blizzard Authenticator from the online store when it was available. This was due to shipping-related issues with our store for this device that could not be resolved by the time it first went on sale. Rather than delay the launch, we felt it was important to make the Authenticator available to as many people as possible as quickly as we could. We’re continuing to work on a solution for these players and will provide an update as further progress is made.”
I don’t see what’s so hard about the “solution” of shipping overseas – I hear the postal service has this thing called ‘international mail’ now – but I’m glad to know they’re not deaf to the issue, at least.
Cmon, dont be snide! The reason they couldent make that availiable is that they didnt want to delay, as they said. The delay is because it is more difficult than you may think to ship an electronic device overseas.
Go to Amazon.com (the american mirror) and try to buy an electronic device, and have that shipped to another country. Cant do it.
When Blizzard makes this availiable to non-US customers, they will do it through a vendor in your home country (or, near your home country, I bet its a fair shake easier to ship from a European country to a European country.
Short answer, Americans are pigs, we like to make things hard.
The US has pretty strong laws regulating the shipment of all encryption technology, and I’m guessing that’s the snag they ran into. Basically, the encryption has to be at or below a certain standard before it can be exported, and I think that applies to everything, including video game account encryptions.
I was under the impression that the limit on shipping the Authenticator outside the US was because of trade export regulations on shipping equipment involved in encryption/decryption. Thus it’s less Blizz’s fault than that of the US Government (not that that is a comfort to the poor Canadians and Australians).
If Blizz US Billing they can’t sort their stuff out I guess that trying to buy one from the EU shop and having it shipped to you from there may be worth it. That is, when it becomes available again, which may be some time…
Encryption export regulations are a very good reason for the hedging about there being a solution, and I hadn’t thought of those – good answer.
That said, however, I know of Aussies who’ve bought the PayPal equivalent dongle, which is – I believe – operating on the same strength of encryption.
Furthermore, note that the blue post specified shipping obstructions, not export regulations, as the problem.
I should note that I have no problem with Blizzard selling it to the North Americans first – better some people get it early than _everyone_ getting it late, after all. My issue is with their hedging about the issue of resolving _shipping_ problems overseas.
The shipping is actually fairly simple, if it’s blizz who ships it. I’ll bet, however, that they’re drop shipping it- having the supplier send them out. Generally, each supplier needs to set up an agreement with every country they want to be able to service.