Battle.net Authenticator Change (I lol'd)

[Jafula]

Even though we couldn't, it might be fun if we could take a picture of 5 authenticators, crop them around each, use OCR (optical character recognition) to get the pictures to convert to numbers (text), then use a program (key broadcaster) to be able to read in the text and then send to each WOW. That would be overpowered, but nice. Especially if they laste 11 mins, it wouldn't matter if the process took 1-2 mins, for me, automation is better than not.

I lol'd.

[Souca]

I'm sure they're raking in the cash from these authenticator sales...

I think jinkobi was saying that they are cheap enough that they should be included with the game purchase, not that Blizzard is trying to profit from them. FF14 gave you one in the Collector's Edition, would be nice if Blizz did the same. The tricky part is that Blizzard has very little control over the cost of them, since a third party makes them. Even if they only cost $1, Vassco can still charge Blizzard $6 for them.

- Souca -

[Ualaa]

I'm pretty sure Blizzard can find more then one source for an authenticator like device. They would likely have a contract which specifies how much their cost is per unit.

Even if Vassco were to charge $20 for each, Blizzard could easily include an authenticator in each boxed Warcraft product, and simply pass the cost along to the consumer as either an increased cost of the game or a portion of subscription fee revenue.

[Souca]

I'm pretty sure Blizzard can find more then one source for an authenticator like device. They would likely have a contract which specifies how much their cost is per unit.

Even if Vassco were to charge $20 for each, Blizzard could easily include an authenticator in each boxed Warcraft product, and simply pass the cost along to the consumer as either an increased cost of the game or a portion of subscription fee revenue.

The auths are protected by patent, so it's possible that there can't legally be another vendor. The auths that FF14 uses are the same as the ones Blizzard uses, just with a different serial prefix (likely making them useless with the other game). There might also be terms in the contract prohibiting Blizzard from using another brand.

In the end, someone has to pay for them, it's just a matter of how.

- Souca -