Diablo 3 shutting down auction house in March 2014

Diablo III's auction house may make it very easy to buy all sorts of shiny hats and swords but oh wait no that's awful, the dream of scoring 'phat loot' (as the kids say) is what keeps people coming back to Diablo. Or not, in the case of D3. So it's going. So long! Goodbye. Blizzard is shutting down both the gold and real-money auction houses on March 18, 2014.

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Diablo III's auction house may make it very easy to buy all sorts of shiny hats and swords but oh wait no that's awful, the dream of scoring 'phat loot' (as the kids say) is what keeps people coming back to Diablo. Or not, in the case of D3. So it's going. So long! Goodbye. Blizzard is shutting down both the gold and real-money auction houses on March 18, 2014.

"When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades," Blizzard said in today's announcement. "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."

While Blizzard has planned for a while to encourage farming and lure people away from the auction house, saying only a few weeks ago that it intended to "cut the legs out from" it, the developer now plans to pull the plug. Together with the 'Loot 2.0' item revamp coming alongside the Reaper of Souls expansion, this should make getting fancy shoes a lot more satisfying.

Here's game director Josh Mosqueira and production director John Hight to explain more:

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  • reply
    September 17, 2013 11:30 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Diablo 3 shutting down auction house in March 2014.

    Diablo III's auction house may make it very easy to buy all sorts of shiny hats and swords but oh wait no that's awful, the dream of scoring 'phat loot' (as the kids say) is what keeps people coming back to Diablo. Or not, in the case of D3. So it's going. So long! Goodbye. Blizzard is shutting down both the gold and real-money auction houses on March 18, 2014.

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 11:32 AM

      it's too bad they waited this long but hopefully it will make the expansion more fun to play

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      September 17, 2013 11:48 AM

      About time. They should have realized they they needed to address the isue with gold/item spam that plagued D2 ingame, not to build a tool to encourage item/stock market mentality. Diablo never needed that aspect in the first place.
      Only thing missing now is the "ironborn" mode that some has suggested, that would not allow you to trade at all if you chose to play in that mode. I would.

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      September 17, 2013 11:49 AM

      Good. Now the game will be pretty cool and new once the expansion comes out I bet!

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      September 17, 2013 11:58 AM

      I hope for some well deserved "TOLD YOU SO!" so from Garnett on the next podcast. It'll be glorious.

      Don't be shy, just go all in. Maybe dig out quotes/replay.

      It was a shitty idea. Plenty of people predicted that it would harm the core game-play.

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 1:35 PM

        I remember Garnett going completely livid when RMAH was announced. That was sometime in 2011, right?

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 12:12 PM

      So, will online still be required?

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        September 17, 2013 12:23 PM

        All signs point in that direction yes. Incorporatiing the server into a local client is quite a huge task when the framework is based on server/client. A huge investment considering that it works so well as it is now (unless you have poor internet connection that is, which some has).

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          September 17, 2013 12:29 PM

          I call bullshit. They already did this with the console versions. They can be played totally offline.

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            September 17, 2013 12:33 PM

            Dude, didn't you know consoles are magical?

          • reply
            September 17, 2013 3:00 PM

            The Console version was built with offline play in mind. The PC version was not, so they are structured completely differently.

            With that being said, if calling bullshit loud enough gets us and offline mode, I'll also call bullshit.

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        September 17, 2013 1:46 PM

        With offline play, no AH, and the hit detection system revamped for offline, we would have a really fun game :) I'm surprised they kept the shit hit detection for consoles. not fun for me

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 12:24 PM

      good

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 12:36 PM

      And millions of D3 fans scream out, "I told you so!" from the comforts on their collective homes. Everyone and anyone with half a brain knew that it was a stupid decision to have the AH in the first place. Dumb.

      If they actually tweaked (or Tweak via the Loot 2.0 system coming up in the expansion) the loot so that you actually get good stuff more regularly, the game would have been far better received than it already was.

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        September 17, 2013 12:43 PM

        That + making the levels more randomized would have made it mega amazing

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          September 17, 2013 1:08 PM

          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 2:49 PM

        ^^^ ding ding ding, this right here.

        the problem wasn't that the Auction House existed, it was that it was the SOLE means of getting upgrades.

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 12:41 PM

      Milk that cow right up till the release of RoS, then get moneyhats from all of the returning players. Good show Blizzard.

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      September 17, 2013 12:48 PM

      Good.

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 1:02 PM

      Cool maybe I'll buy it now when the expansion is out.

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 1:03 PM

        I see I'm not the only one considering that!

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 1:04 PM

      hmm. well hopefully all the top level players have a fire sale with all the good loot. :D

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 10:47 PM

        They will all be worthless when the expansion comes out just after the AH closes.

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 1:34 PM

      For other companies this would mean bancruptcy. For Blizzard it was merely tuesday.

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 1:43 PM

      Not enough hate. Come on people, am I the only one who found the painfully bad story telling to be the worst part of D3?

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 1:58 PM

        It was bad, for sure. But the expansion might be able to band-aid it enough that it's not as overpowering.

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 2:42 PM

        Words cannot express my anger and disappointment.

      • reply
        September 18, 2013 4:30 PM

        "You cannot escape the realm of TER-ROR!!

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      September 17, 2013 1:54 PM

      AITOO who is thinking about deleting all my characters and starting over in March?

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 2:00 PM

        [deleted]

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        September 17, 2013 2:10 PM

        That sounds kinda awesome. Not sure if I'll start my DH over, but I'm also not sure if I ever want to play my DH again.

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        September 17, 2013 2:45 PM

        I will definitely start a new character with a class I haven't played yet. I haven't been able to play much this year so I only have a couple characters anyway.

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 1:56 PM

      Next on the list, StarCraft Ghost

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 1:59 PM

        I'm still waiting, with dognose-like patience

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 2:04 PM

      Well, that kind of sucks. I enjoyed making a few bucks off the RMAH. A buddy of mine made like $800 off it.

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        September 17, 2013 2:08 PM

        coworker of mine botted it and made $2500 before his account was banned

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 2:10 PM

      I wonder what I should do with all my gold. I assume there won't be money sinks to absorb the trillions of gold out there.

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      September 17, 2013 2:21 PM

      This will vastly improve the game IMO.

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      September 17, 2013 2:29 PM

      GREAT! Seems like the expansion is bringing a lot of good all around.

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        September 17, 2013 2:31 PM

        If the expansion adds more randomization to the world and maybe some more memorable music I'll be completely happy.

        • reply
          September 18, 2013 10:03 AM

          I like the music, it has cues from movies like Blade, but not getting Matt Uelmen to return was a huge mistake. The first two games' soundtracks are on my ipod, they are that good!

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      September 17, 2013 2:47 PM

      This is so shortsighted.

      All it's going to do is bring d2jsp back to prominence.

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 7:07 PM

        "prominence" yeah cause jsp was so huge before, lmao

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 2:50 PM

      [deleted]

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        September 17, 2013 2:54 PM

        The thinking is that it will allow for more frequent good drops. We're seeing it in the console versions right now.

        Third party sales will be a headache as before, ofc

        • reply
          September 17, 2013 4:05 PM

          I assume they retain some sort of in-game broker for trading, if it isn't a full on auction system, right?

          getting rid of that convenience and functionality altogether would be a huge mistake. throwing out the baby with the bath water, etc etc etc

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      September 17, 2013 3:32 PM

      You think they'll also make WoW less of a shitty amusement park in the next expansion too?

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        September 17, 2013 4:02 PM

        It depends. What did they do with Jay Wilson?

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          September 17, 2013 4:26 PM

          He stepped down from his position on the Diablo 3 team. He probably moved to the WoW team to help them develop more panda ideas.

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            September 17, 2013 4:32 PM

            In that case the magic 8 ball says "The outlook is not good."

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              September 17, 2013 4:53 PM

              Agreed.

              You know, Jay Wilson had some not-so-bright ideas but you WOULD think that the people that are higher up at Blizzard would say "hey this sucks, go back to the drawing board" but yet they put their stamp of approval on the changes and now they undoing it.

              • reply
                September 17, 2013 6:37 PM

                I don't like Jay since he acted like a douche on Facebook, but let's be realistic: I don't think he's responsible for everything. He was their front PR and game designer figure. He can't do whatever he pleases, a lot of other people probably have had some input as well.

      • reply
        September 18, 2013 4:17 AM

        WoW is probably the best-playing game now that it's ever been. We've just seen and done it all and the stuff they add no longer does it for many of the people who've been playing for 9 years.

        But damn, if I were to tell a complete noob to MMOs what game they should go for that would be the most competently constructed, polished, and fun to play? I'd still tell them WoW every single time.

        • reply
          September 18, 2013 7:17 PM

          I think you got that opinion because that's all you've played. I agree it's the most polished, but fun to play? Yeah, if you've only played it, a "fanboy" if you will.

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 4:31 PM

      This is a beautiful and extremely rare thing. Despite the financial benefit Blizzard receives from the RMAH they are instead going to support actual game-play. Square risked this also with FFXIV:ARR.

      At the moment I can't think of any over developers that have done that, with a game released in the wild.

      • reply
        September 17, 2013 5:33 PM

        [deleted]

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        September 17, 2013 8:04 PM

        Blizzard's reputation and brand are far, far more valuable to them than whatever revenues they're getting from the RMAH.

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          September 17, 2013 10:52 PM

          Yeah, and I doubt the RMAH made shitloads of $$$ anyway. The higher sales volume of the expansion pack, due to the AH removal, will probably offset the lost RMAH revenue.

    • reply
      September 17, 2013 5:25 PM

      Wow this was unexpected, I might re-install the game now and buy the expansion.

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        September 18, 2013 12:23 AM

        Yes might do the same actually

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      September 18, 2013 1:51 AM

      It doesn't erase the fact that people have already got pimped out characters based on items they bought for pennies, items that are best in slot.

      AH was a fucking stupid idea right from the off. Removing it so long after release is a zero impact choice.

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        September 18, 2013 2:03 AM

        Except they're likely removing for the expansion which will render many of those items obsolete.

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          September 18, 2013 2:06 AM

          like that will lessen this most righteous rage of mine?!?!?!

          BLIZZ LIED EOT

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            September 18, 2013 2:11 AM

            ok, that was an awful post, even for me. I apologize.

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        September 18, 2013 4:05 AM

        "Zero impact choice" my ass, that is stupid. There's an expansion coming with increased level cap, and even if it wasn't, what would prevent Blizzard from making some itemization changes that would add even better drops to the game?

        This change directly translates to me getting my new gear, be that for old chars in the expansion or for new chars whenever, from drops instead of getting 95% of it from AH. As bloody far from zero impact as one can get.

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