When Blizzard released the Diablo III 1.08 patch the company did not realize that there was a small gold-exploit bug that would soon cause a game-wide shutdown of the title’s auction-houses.
Update 1.08 released here in the U.S. just yesterday, but it didn’t take long before players found the bug, which if used correctly could make you an instant millionaire. The patch-bug was simple enough, increasing the allowed stacks for in-game gold within the auction house from 1 million to 10 million. Making gold 1/10th of its previous price. Then all a player had to do was cancel a gold auction, and they would get 2X the amount listed, thus double their money for nothing.
The bug hit the internet on a few different sites and gold rained down from the heavens on countless players. Millions and Millions of dollars (gold) became available to all, this had players buying up everything in site, including some of the rarest items. All with money that was in a sense useless. This made the price of gold drop to almost nothing, and the inflation basically collapsed the entire economy. Blizzard is now aware of the exploit and has shut down the auction-house until further notice. Apparently Blizzard already has a fix, but it has not been pushed through as a patch yet.
more info: blizzard
