Diablo III’s auction house system has been a bit of a controversial issue that has managed to annoy a lot of fans of the series. It was originally designed so players could buy loot items for either in game gold currency, or using real money.
However, Blizzard have decided to remove it because the company feels it has taken away from the core Diablo experience, namely finding loot during the adventure instead of just buying it from an auction house. And going by the comments on the blog post it appears the majority are in favour of the removal.
The date the auction house closes for good is March 18 2014, which should give players plenty of time to adjust, or buy loot incredibly quickly. Details on what trading system could possibly replace the auction house could be announced at BlizzCon.
Source: Blizzard
TheDemocrodile
Fascinating. I’d like to believe their reasons for removing the AH but i think its far more likely that they’ve realised the damage that implementing it alongside the always on requirement has caused to the franchise.
There was a time that the name of Blizzard was revered amongst PC gamers, the damage that D3 and its trials and tribulations has caused will leave a lasting legacy on their relationships with their customers – a nasty thing to have happen to you when you consider their biggest profit maker is the PC exclusive WoW.
Still hopefully this’ll lead to an offline option surfacing early summer next year and Blizzard can start redeeming itself.
MadBoJangles
Really glad to hear this.
Hopefully a raised level cap and newer/better items will be implemented into the game too (probably with the expansion), because as it stands, little Billy in Texas who used his mummy’s credit card to buy a 2 bajillion dps Skorn has an advantage over everyone else!