Diablo 3 real-money auction house will require authenticator

The controversial launch of Blizzard's Diablo 3 Real-Money Auction House is coming up soon, and Blizzard isramping upsecurity in anticipation.

The service has already been hit with a number of high-profile hacks and account thefts since the launch a month ago, and Blizzard is taking as few chances as possible when people's actual bank accounts are exposed. To that end, they're now announcing that an authenticator will be required for adding money to accounts and sending proceeds into an account.

"While we understand that this creates an extra step for players during the login process, we believe this added layer of account protection will help foster a safer auction house environment for all of our players," reads a statementposted by Blizzard on their forums.

The Battle.net authenticator is available in a physical form for $6.50, and just so you know they're not just trying to nickel-and-dime you, you can get it for free on your smartphone.