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World of Warcraft disables cross-realm trading amid ongoing issues

The World of Warcraft The War Within pre-patch has led to several major problems in the Blizzard MMORPG, with cross-realm trading disabled.

World of Warcraft cross-realm trading disabled as The War Within issues continue - Jaina, a mage in a blue and gold hood.

The launch of the World of Warcraft The War Within patch has proven a little more troublesome than Blizzard likely expected. The update has just rolled out in the iconic MMORPG ahead of the next expansion’s arrival, but it’s already been marred by several problems. Following the decision to temporarily switch off the new Warband Warbanks, Blizzard now announces that it has disabled cross-realm trading in WoW.

World of Warcraft community manager Randy ‘Kaivax’ Jordan explains that the WoW cross-realm trading feature has been switched off for now while Blizzard works on resolving an issue. While the cause isn’t specified, this likely relates to reports from players that attempting to trade causes lock-ups, forcing crashes or logouts. It’s then resulting in temporary errors when logging back into the MMORPG warning that “A character with that name already exists.”

“We’ve identified an issue with cross-realm trading that requires us to temporarily disable the function,” Jordan says in a post to the official World of Warcraft forums. “We’re working on a fix, and until we’re finished with that work, cross-realm trading should fail when attempted. We’ll let you know as soon as we’re done. Thank you.”

WoW community manager Randy 'Kaivax' Jordan - "We’ve identified an issue with cross-realm trading that requires us to temporarily disable the function. We’re working on a fix, and until we’re finished with that work, cross-realm trading should fail when attempted. We’ll let you know as soon as we’re done. Thank you!"

This follows on from a separate problem that has seen the new WoW Warbanks disabled. The tool, part of the Warbands system in The War Within, allows players to transfer currencies between alts, but was quickly turned off as people reported their sent currency not showing up on the other end. Blizzard has yet to follow up, but calls it a “top priority.”

If you’ve been out of the loop, we’ve got all the latest details on the WoW The War Within release date, beta, and everything else you need to know ahead of launch. You’ll also want to check in on the most essential WoW addons to use in 2024.

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