Blizzard closes down Diablo 3 Auction House on March 18, 2014
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
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.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Blizzard closes down Diablo 3 Auction House started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 376 Comments
  1. Vintersol's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Asuna-San View Post
    Orrrr just do it the old fashioned way and get loot from drops? Why do people seriously like Pay 2 Win with gold or real world money? I understand competition, but it ruins the uniqueness of item drops. Soooo happy for this update as well as Loot 2.0!
    Because the chance to get better loot is related to the existence of the auction house. Thousands of players connected easily via one platform region wide, the personal chance to get useful loots must be down because of the easy access to buy them from the auction house.
  1. Myunihausen's Avatar
    have they quit trying to "balance" the classes too? I remember be able to kill your enemy's wasn't fun even though it took 5-10 minutes of kiting on one of the 2 classes that could do it.
  1. Inveracity's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mazaxist View Post
    this is the best news ever. i might give diablo a shot with new exp...
    I'm with you on that one, I haven't played D3 in... paragon levels weren't even in the game at that point. It needed help, now if they implement LAN capability, I'm all over it.
  1. Rioo's Avatar
    Great change, but I feel like it's too late. Even though people didn't like the system, it made gearing easier and more convenient. With it gone, I don't know how many people really want to grind for gear anymore. It would be like removing flying mounts in WoW. They should never have added them, but they can't remove them now.
  1. D4NNYB0Y's Avatar
    Holy shit I can't believe they actually have the balls to do this. O.o This is the best and most monumental decision they've made across all three major franchises in years. There may actually be hope for Diablo III yet.

    And Blizzard for that matter. I've gained a lot of respect for them after this news.
  1. Nero Duskwind's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Silverspark View Post
    Terrible decision. Oh well, the game was fun while it lasted, but I will not tediously grind my way through inferno on all my chars until I finally have gear that is semi-decent enough to let me play on MP1 and then do it all over again so I can play on MP2 ...
    You're missing the part where this isn't going to happen for another 7 months, when the Loot 2.0 and Paragon revamps will in all likelihood be implemented and render your little anecdote invalid.
  1. Sett's Avatar
    Uh.

    Their loot system better be a bit rewarding or it's gonna suck gearing alts. I loved D2's trading system. But we currently don't have games opened like that to ask for WTB ZOD RUNES 4 SOJs or something. Hrmm.


    Mixed feelings on this one. I know this is going to slap the gold scammers in the face.
  1. puppypizza's Avatar
    Excellent news. Now that it won't have an auction house, will it get an offline mode next? I'd re-buy the game for that.

    Thank you, Mr. Mosqueira, for fixing Mr. Wilson's mess.
  1. Mackeyser's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Silverspark View Post
    Terrible decision. Oh well, the game was fun while it lasted, but I will not tediously grind my way through inferno on all my chars until I finally have gear that is semi-decent enough to let me play on MP1 and then do it all over again so I can play on MP2 ...
    It's called Loot 2.0. Relax. More of the gear will be focused on your spec meaning that more of the drops will actually be focused on YOU rather than truly random crap. As well, you'll actually have more chance at Legendaries and those Legendaries will rock even harder.

    This change will encourage you to play more because like in D2, you got gear from playing.

    The game is a dungeon crawler. By definition, it's a gear grind. Blizz is easing up on that a fair bit, and adding random Loot Runs and other ways to bust out of the monotony, but if anyone's thinking they can just buy their way to victory, then...no.

    That is a mistake that's been corrected. Without Loot 2.0 and the many other Quality of Life gameplay changes Blizz is implementing, I'd agree with you. Closing the AH with the current loot system would be a disaster.

    That's not what's happening. Frankly, with Loot 2.0, you won't need the AH. Not really.

    The question now becomes what do we do with our gold? I guess I may finally have enough money to upgrade my gems????

    Dare to dream!!!
  1. |Dexter|'s Avatar
    Why is this posted on the main page?! It's not WoW news... However great news I may pickup the game after that Real money crap is shutdown!
  1. markdall's Avatar
    Huh. Looks like maybe I'll give D3 another try on March 19th. It's still installed, I just haven't played it in a long time.
  1. Jokerfiend's Avatar
    I just don't get it.

    Sorry, but time and time again, Blizzard back peddles. They ARE turning D3 into D2. Not saying its a "bad" thing. It's just Blizzard does this ALL THE TIME.
  1. Grevie's Avatar
    Lol, what happend here? hard to read between the lines, they backpedal because if not, Reaper of souls will not even sell, plus hard to convince people
    to give it a shot to the next Blizzcon anual pass. That's all that i read there.
  1. Msshammy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by |Dexter| View Post
    Why is this posted on the main page?! It's not WoW news... However great news I may pickup the game after that Real money crap is shutdown!
    Last I checked the website wasn't called wow-champion
  1. Anjerith's Avatar
    To be fair, they said back when they announced it that it was an experiment to keep the game funded and that if it didn't work out they would remove it. Likely players - being themselves - didn't believe it. And now that it is happening they are patting themselves on the back for "Sticking it to the man".
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    One of the major problems with D3 was that they've put most of their effort on the AH and forgot about the game.

    Diablo 3 would be released way earlier but thanks to their "activision" interest on making money out of it (with RMAH), the game was delayed and delayed... (and got old even before release)...

    RMAH basically almost killed D3. Guess they want RoS to res the game, so, bye bye AH.

    Now on to offline mode, thanks... was really interested in playing the hardcore mode, was mid nighmare dificult when almost lost my character due to a stupid DC... never played it again, not worth as it is.
  1. Buu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Goron24 View Post
    "safe and convenient way to trade items" but with real money, how delusional are these guys? It was a disaster from day 1. It didn't succeed.. At all
    Greatest disaster that I really doubt the B.net team haven't predicted and WARNED Jay Wilson: The resources put to sustain the AH in B.net were in fact GREATER than the resources put to sustain the maps and character connection, from day ONE. Thanks to that Error 37 is a legend now.
  1. Die Hard's Avatar
    Holy F$$$$$$ING S$$T... i never believe this would happen, this took BALLS my friend. Good move in right direction, hope to hear more good news till Reaper of Souls release!
  1. Solidusbr's Avatar


    Might buy the game now.
  1. Theed's Avatar
    This will make me start playing this game again.

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