Home Gaming Say goodbye to the Diablo 3 auction houses next year

Say goodbye to the Diablo 3 auction houses next year

1 min read
92

Five bucks, and that's as I'll high go

Despite good intentions to give gamers a chance to make some real cash, it looks like Diablo’s 3 auction houses just don’t fit in with the game. Which is why they’re getting the chop next year.

As of March 2014, Auction Houses will be removed from Diablo 3. According to Blizzard’s John Hight on the company website, that’s because auctioneering is having a negative impact on the core gameplay of Diablo 3. “When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades,” Hight wrote on the site.

But as we’ve mentioned on different occasions, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo’s core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.

With that in mind, we want to let everyone know that we’ve decided to remove the gold and real-money auction house system from Diablo 3.

We feel that this move along with the Loot 2.0 system being developed concurrently with Reaper of Souls™ will result in a much more rewarding game experience for our players.

We’re working out the details of how the auction house system will be shut down, but we wanted to share the news as soon as we made the decision in order to give everyone as much advance notice as possible. Please note that the shutdown will occur on March 18, 2014.

We will keep everyone informed as we work through this process.

With Diablo 3 out on Xbox 360, and headed to other platforms in the future, it’s most likely going to have a long life ahead of it. Especially with that expansion on the way. And losing a chance to make some real cash probably won’t even slow Diablo 3 down at all.

Last Updated: September 18, 2013

92 Comments

  1. Give it the chop, and do it chop-chop, you chop

    Reply

    • Umar Jaeger

      September 18, 2013 at 09:24

      I really want a chop now…..

      Reply

      • Mark Treloar

        September 18, 2013 at 09:36

        Play GTA V. Train your Chop with iFruit.

        Reply

        • Umar Jaeger

          September 18, 2013 at 09:43

          I can’t eat him 🙁

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief of Rivia

            September 18, 2013 at 09:49

            You can, but that’s just wrong

        • The Noble TiMsTeR

          September 18, 2013 at 09:50

          I haven’t even seen chop yet! or any animal other than a rat!

          Reply

        • ElNicko

          September 18, 2013 at 10:00

          I would love to , bar for the fact that the app is only for bloody IOS….

          Reply

  2. Umar Jaeger

    September 18, 2013 at 09:23

    Cue Cliffy B complaining that we are holding the industry back…
    Well good riddance to AH

    Reply

    • That Dark Twit

      September 18, 2013 at 09:24

      LOL @ Cliffy B

      Reply

    • SaintsRowLee

      September 18, 2013 at 09:29

      And Peter Molyneux (sorry I can like to spell) crying about people not tapping their iPads enough…

      Reply

      • Umar Jaeger

        September 18, 2013 at 09:43

        Seems all these guys do is cry about gamers . How do their tear ducts handle it

        Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      September 18, 2013 at 10:04

      Cliffy B can suck on some tough love! Dude’s far too entitled for his own good. Yeah, I said it!

      Reply

      • Umar Jaeger

        September 18, 2013 at 10:17

        And yeah I agree!!

        Reply

      • The Noble TiMsTeR

        September 18, 2013 at 10:17

        I couldn’t of said it better myself.

        Reply

  3. Mossel

    September 18, 2013 at 09:24

    I wonder what the Loot 2.0 system will mean? Better Loot drop rates?

    Reply

    • The Kenn

      September 18, 2013 at 09:25

      Less, but better drops

      Reply

      • Mossel

        September 18, 2013 at 09:29

        Im down for that

        Reply

    • Admiral Chief of Rivia

      September 18, 2013 at 09:26

      How far are you in W2?

      Reply

      • Mossel

        September 18, 2013 at 09:31

        Difficult to say, dont want to spoil anything… Lets just say I had a boss fight and it was insanely difficult! Until I figured out a winning pattern…

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief of Rivia

          September 18, 2013 at 09:48

          Are you in chapter 2 now? If so, then I know of which boss fight(s) you mean (one of two? big/small?)

          Reply

          • Mossel

            September 18, 2013 at 12:08

            Nope not chapter 2 yet. I only killed the boss and followed that with a ferocious war cry at my screen. Haven’t played since, because stuff, lol.

          • Admiral Chief of Rivia

            September 18, 2013 at 13:15

            Boss as in the Kayran?

          • Mossel

            September 18, 2013 at 13:19

            Nope, Kayran was easy… . It’s part of the main quest.

          • Admiral Chief of Rivia

            September 18, 2013 at 13:21

            Letho then? Cuz you no keeeel heeeem

          • Mossel

            September 18, 2013 at 13:24

            Hehe no you dont, but damn! The first couple of times I barely made a dent in his health bar! Then I started spamming hom with Aard and 2-3 sword hits. Rince and repeat. But once he has Quen going I couldnt do shit.

          • Admiral Chief of Rivia

            September 18, 2013 at 13:37

            Yeah, I have the riposte perk, so that works as well

  4. That Dark Twit

    September 18, 2013 at 09:27

    Ja nee @ header mouse over.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief of Rivia

      September 18, 2013 at 09:28

      Indeed

      Reply

  5. justlikemo

    September 18, 2013 at 09:30

    wrong header darryn, you google for “Auction Hunter” not pawn stars

    Reply

  6. CrasH

    September 18, 2013 at 09:36

    Little too late.
    Trying to win fans back before the expansion… shame on you for betrying them in the 1st place

    Reply

    • SaintsRowLee

      September 18, 2013 at 09:38

      If they really want to win fans over, the header would be Say goodbye to the Diablo 3 always online next year

      Reply

      • CrasH

        September 18, 2013 at 09:41

        Actually, that is why they are droping the AH… Cause they want to bring Offline back, but I would also like LAN play back if they did go offline, but not for me. i refuse to play it again or any expansion or iterations following, but so that other companies might consider it.

        Reply

        • GooseZA

          September 18, 2013 at 09:55

          LOL! I’m sure Blizzard is heartbroken…

          I can’t wait for the expansion. Going to be awesome!

          Reply

          • CrasH

            September 18, 2013 at 10:05

            I am sure that although as you pointed out, one person wont affect the overall out come, there are many more with the same feeling.

            If you played Diablo 1 and Especially 2 then you cannot say that 3 is a good game. you cant even say that its a decent game when compared.

            Sadly, they only losing the old school gamers… for every Fan thats not going to buy the game, their is going to about 10 children that never heard of it before that is going to buy it.

        • Gerhard Davids

          September 18, 2013 at 10:21

          “that is why they are droping the AH”

          Don’t talk out your arse please.
          The AH is simply over-efficient. A barter system makes more sense for Diablo where the AH works for WoW. There won’t be offline play. If that’s what you want, get the console version. It’s brilliant.

          Reply

          • CrasH

            September 18, 2013 at 10:34

            Well, its not from my arse but one of my firend in the UK that is working for blizzards arse.

            Although, he is only a GM for a few of the WOW servers, and although its not been annouced or official, he heard that it has been considered.

          • Gerhard Davids

            September 18, 2013 at 10:42

            Being considered is far removed from being the reason.

            Fact vs hearsay vs opinion.
            Water cooler talk is hardly fact.

          • SaintsRowLee

            September 18, 2013 at 10:49

            Guess time will tell, but i see no real reason besides “DRM” why they would want to keep it all online, considering all the servers they need to maintain and all the bandwidth they require, but with WOW numbers getting lower and lower, they should have plenty of bandwidth avaliable.

          • Gerhard Davids

            September 18, 2013 at 10:55

            The other reason is to keep duped items out of the economy.
            With the introduction of ladder and it’s purposed workings in D3 this will be even less incentive to remove online play.

          • CrasH

            September 18, 2013 at 12:21

            Agreed, but then it will be the same as most other ladder.
            You must have an online account for ladder and can have an offline for playing with friends or on lan… like it used to be.

  7. Unavengedavo (aka. Frik)

    September 18, 2013 at 09:38

    Is it just me or has Activision-Blizzard made some major changes since they bought their freedom from Vivendi?

    Reply

    • Lardus-Respect the beard

      September 18, 2013 at 09:56

      It does seem like it…

      Reply

      • Kromas

        September 18, 2013 at 10:04

        I suspect WoW freemium model incoming very very soon.

        Reply

  8. Lardus-Respect the beard

    September 18, 2013 at 09:57

    About

    Reply

    • Lardus-Respect the beard

      September 18, 2013 at 09:57

      Bloody

      Reply

      • Lardus-Respect the beard

        September 18, 2013 at 09:57

        TIME!!

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief of Rivia

          September 18, 2013 at 10:00

          It

          Reply

          • Unavengedavo (aka. Frik)

            September 18, 2013 at 10:09

            Huh?

          • Admiral Chief of Rivia

            September 18, 2013 at 10:12

            He broke his comments into 3, I did the same with my responses 😉

          • Unavengedavo (aka. Frik)

            September 18, 2013 at 10:27

            Lol, I know, it just reminded me of…

          • The Noble TiMsTeR

            September 18, 2013 at 11:00

            Grandma would be screwed in zombie apocalypse..

          • Lardus-Respect the beard

            September 18, 2013 at 13:03

            Lol, you got them good haha

      • Admiral Chief of Rivia

        September 18, 2013 at 09:59

        Said

        Reply

    • Admiral Chief of Rivia

      September 18, 2013 at 09:59

      You

      Reply

  9. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    September 18, 2013 at 09:57

    Can’t wait for it to be removed!

    It will be like the game I loved all these years again!

    Reply

  10. Alt View

    September 18, 2013 at 09:57

    So how will this work technically? If I have some godlike items I purchased from AH and they remove AH will I still have my godlike unfair items vs. a new player who has to grind? I would like a total reset but you can’t do that and steal people’s money that bought items now can you? But if you don’t then you will have 2 groups of players, AH stacked players (unfair/unbalanced) vs. Old school grind players (I prefer this big D2 fan). I don’t know what or how they are going to do it but it seems broken and I still won’t come back

    Reply

  11. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    September 18, 2013 at 10:03

    But what about the rich kids? Where will they go, to spend their parents’ credit cards to buy overpowered gear for their shitty avatars? You know what this means… more rich kids getting into trouble with the law. If you can’t use the Diablo 3 auction houses, you’re going to go and buy METH or star in a porn flick..

    Yes… I’ve been playing a lot of GTA5 lately… :0

    Reply

    • Alt View

      September 18, 2013 at 10:08

      Lol…next blizzard would be blamed for kids smoking crack.

      But on a legal note. Blizzard sold this game with the AH. So they can’t really just remove it now. Blizzard put a new end user license agreement on the game. I think they are trying to bypass the law and force people to agree to get rid of the AH/RMAH.

      You either sign it, or you can’t play the game anymore.

      This is highly questionable.

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        September 18, 2013 at 10:14

        Generally, EULA allow for software to be modified and changed without even informing the end-user. Of course, we’re yet to see a EULA tested for legality in a court of law, because consumer laws would always win.

        Reply

      • Gideon Venter

        September 18, 2013 at 11:41

        I never thought of it like that… Very thought provoking.

        Reply

    • M-m-m-monster John

      September 18, 2013 at 10:08

      I’d choose meth

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief of Rivia

        September 18, 2013 at 10:08

        I’d star in PF

        Reply

        • M-m-m-monster John

          September 18, 2013 at 10:09

          I’m way too self-conscious for that. Besides, just now you end up walking onto the wrong set.

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief of Rivia

            September 18, 2013 at 10:11

            Meaning?

          • M-m-m-monster John

            September 18, 2013 at 10:39

            I am not a smart man

          • Unavengedavo (aka. Frik)

            September 18, 2013 at 10:13

    • The Noble TiMsTeR

      September 18, 2013 at 10:12

      Howzit Jim, Seeing as you have a way with words and all. Have much fun on gta v last night? You seen any animals? I haven’t so I am curious to how they will behave..

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        September 18, 2013 at 10:20

        I went hunting as Trevor last night, took down a stag with a sniper rifle. I felt the pride of my manliness in my nether regions. The weird thing is that I would never hunt in real life, but much like with Red Dead Redemption, it satisfied my bloodlust.

        Absolutely Crazy!

        I guess deep down, we’re all but a stone throws away from swinging a broadsword at an enemy’s head. RAAARRR!

        But to answer your question, it’s awesome. If you’re getting it for PS3, we can hook up and start a crew (once the Online portion is up).

        Reply

        • The Noble TiMsTeR

          September 18, 2013 at 10:21

          🙁 another ps3 owner! RINCE!! you got it on xbox right?

          Reply

        • The Noble TiMsTeR

          September 18, 2013 at 10:22

          Seen a mountain lion?

          Reply

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            September 18, 2013 at 10:34

            I got taken out by a bobcat. He snuck up behind me while I was sniping a boar…. I did repay the favour later by shooting one with a shotgun…

            Dear god.. this game is violent… 😮

          • Admiral Chief of Rivia

            September 18, 2013 at 10:35

            So Banana…got it from behind????

            HAHAHAHA

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            September 18, 2013 at 10:36

            SHUT YO MOUTH! By the way, my friendlist had 20 of 31 people playing GTA V last night (the other 11 were offline). Absolutely amazing.

          • The Noble TiMsTeR

            September 18, 2013 at 10:36

            Any dismembering? They said that somewhere… The animals similar to Read dead redemption?

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            September 18, 2013 at 10:38

            Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any dismembering, but then I haven’t found a katana yet. And yes, the animals are similar to Red Dead redemption. It’s almost like the last 3-4 Rockstar Games have been incorporated into GTA 5. I think lagz covered this in a previous article, but yeah… very cool!

          • The Noble TiMsTeR

            September 18, 2013 at 10:47

            Yeah its deffo alot of Max Payne 3 in there and midnight club and Red dead of course. If you look at the game, its basically taken Max payne 3 engine and added a crap load to it and made it into an open world.

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          September 18, 2013 at 10:29

          Stop playing with me!

          Reply

    • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

      September 18, 2013 at 14:23

  12. RincemySniperKittEH0-O

    September 18, 2013 at 10:32

    BRILLIANT header!! And good, this sort of rubbish need not tarnish the world of make believe!

    Reply

  13. InsanityFlea

    September 18, 2013 at 10:37

    I liked the idea of an in-game gold auction house. not the really money one.

    Reply

  14. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    September 18, 2013 at 11:04

    So since the AH is going away does that mean I CAN GET MY GAME AS AN OFFLINE SP GAME WITHOUT HAVING LATENCY WHILE TRYING TO PLAY SP????? HUH BLIZZARD? HUH????

    Reply

  15. loftie

    September 18, 2013 at 11:17

    March 18, 2014, the day I delete my old dusty Auction House 3 chars and start again. This makes me happy, Kill Auction House 3 and bring back the essence of what Diablo game play is! Yes!

    Reply

    • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

      September 18, 2013 at 11:25

      For that they would need to include a complete way that skills are handled with the ability to use skill points and proper skill trees so you can have multiple characters of the same class each with its own unique build.

      Not this one class that you can do whatever you want with whenever you want with only a handful of skills

      Reply

      • loftie

        September 18, 2013 at 11:27

        My optimism has evaporated. :/

        Thanks Llew, back to D2 lol

        Reply

        • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

          September 18, 2013 at 11:29

          Lol. Sorry bru. But you all should know, wherever there is a D3 article the rants will flow from me! 😛

          Reply

          • That Dark Twit

            September 18, 2013 at 11:43

            😛

          • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

            September 18, 2013 at 12:15

            lol

  16. Craig Boonzaier

    September 18, 2013 at 11:37

    Does this mean that we don’t need to be online anymore, can play offiline, maybe even, dare I say it, have a lan mode.

    Reply

  17. Paul Fouche

    September 18, 2013 at 11:42

    finally Blizzard is listening to the people!! VIVA VIVA Power to the people

    Reply

  18. Rags

    September 18, 2013 at 12:31

    We have been saying this shit forever. And it is only a small part of the larger broken game, Too late, FU blizzard. First game I have thrown in the bin.

    Reply

  19. Wyzak

    September 18, 2013 at 13:42

    Good riddance to bad rubbish, now allow us to play offline as well if we so choose and we’ll have the game we always wanted.

    Reply

  20. DARK_SETH

    September 20, 2013 at 09:00

    No Auction House no Offline. OOps….

    Reply

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