I know I haven’t been keeping up with major news on the blog about Loot 2.0 or even the expansion but this is news I wanted to make sure I cover. Major news coming from Blizzard today regarding the D3 auction houses. On March 18th, 2014 both of the auction houses are going to be shut down!
Here’s what Blizzard has to say about it (or watch the video posted above):
When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. 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 III.
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.
Josh Mosqueira and I wanted to provide everyone with a little more information behind this decision, so please have a look at the video, and stay tuned to this site for further updates in the months ahead.
I do feel like this is ultimately good news. Yes, I did use the auction house a lot (buying/selling) to get gear. I do agree that the AH can and does undermine Diablo’s core gameplay. The thing is now we can expect to see many more unauthorized spammy third party item/gold sellers on the internet. People will still buy gear but with a lot more risk involved. I’m glad that Blizzard really is focusing hard on fixing the game and this is just one aspect of that. It’s great to see that Blizzard isn’t letting AH profits get in the way of making a better game.
For more news concerning the AH and even just the expansion, Reaper of Souls, check out DiabloFans. I’m always at their site checking stuff out.