Blizzard closes Diablo III gold and real-money auction houses

[Shawn Knight]

Diablo III’s gold and real-money auction houses are in the history books. Blizzard on Tuesday pulled the plug on the auction houses ahead of the game’s first expansion pack – Reaper of Souls – which includes a number of changes and new content.

While the auction houses may have been a good idea in theory (and to Blizzard’s bottom dollar), many felt they ultimately ruined the game. As Diablo III production director John Hight said in a blog post late last year, the auction houses undermined the game’s core task of killing monsters and collecting loot.

In preparation for the closures, Blizzard implemented a new loot system a few weeks ago. The Loot 2.0 update delivered more frequent drops of top-tier gear specific to the character that you were playing at the time and less junk that you won’t want.

In anticipation of the upcoming expansion pack, Blizzard released a new trailer that highlights its best features. These include a new act that takes place in Westmarch, a new playable hero known as The Crusader, a new Adventure Mode and replayable Bounty content.

The Reaper of Souls expansion pack is set to launch on March 25 starting at $39.99 for the digital standard edition. A digital deluxe edition sells for $20 more and includes several in-game bonuses like exclusive helm- and weapon-transmogrification recipes, a Spectral Hound minion that players can summon to keep their adventurers company, three additional character slots to accommodate new heroes, a World of Warcraft in-game companion pet and a set of StarCraft II Crusader-themed Battle.net portraits and Malthael-themed decals.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56043-blizzard-closes-diablo-iii-gold-and-real-money-auction-houses.html

 

[davislane1]

Too little, too late for the standard game. I revisited D3 earlier this month and the then-impending closing of the AH did little to make grinding any more worthwhile than it already was.

The expansion looks like it has the potential to fix D3's ephemeral fun factor, but the price point is $20 too high.

 

[Kibaruk]

On Blizzards side, this was an awful move.

They scared away the people who played the game to pay for WoW, they farmed in here and payed their months through other peoples money, all of this while blizzard got a cut from the transaction. Specially now, people could've farmed their way for hearthstone's packs. Some friends made some serious cash through farm (Of course it doesn't pay as much as getting a job... but hey, you are gaming, slashing and looting, while making money!).

Once they released the news about closing the AH I played just a bit every other week. Then they announced the expension for a price and I said "efe blizzard, I'm done".

On the gamer side, this won't make more people play Diablo. Those who didn't like it won't come to play D3 because Blizzard shot down the AH, specially now that you'll have to cash out more bucks to get the full experience.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

If people were expected to spend their real currency in game after they had bought and paid for the game they ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's a good thing I never paid any attention to any of Blizzards games, they weren't my cup of tea anyway.

 

[TomSEA]

Dumb idea by Blizzard. I think the most casual gaming fan and observer could see that this wasn't going to work. What money they thought they could get from the auction house was probably lost in people who didn't want to play BECAUSE of the auction house.

 

[GhostRyder]

For some reason I thought they had already done this awhile ago. But anyway the damage has already been done and now people are used to having this and instead of embracing it they completely removed it.

The thing is, this is going to do less of bringing back the players who did not like this who already moved on and instead get rid of the players who liked this and wanted it to stay.

For me, I was not that big of a fan of the game to begin with, but I don't think this move was smart.

 

[Guest]

Encouraging grinding rather than being successful and working making real life money, Blizzard has turned into the Department of Education.

 

[lipe123]

Few things:
1. All of you saying this is a bad move, you are WRONG!
Casuals play on normal difficulty and don't require good gear.
The aim of the game is to get good gear through hard work, not spending money.
The real problem was getting gear drops with rolls not for your class and this problem has finally been addressed in patch 2.0

2. The new bind on account is slightly over used, crafted items should at least be subject to the same 2h trade window as regular drops.

3.With the expansion and new lvl70 cap, all the current gear becomes pointless and its a new fair and equal start for everyone that still play.

 

[insect]

Playing D3 since launch and Patch 2.0 completely revamped the game. The game feels rewarding and worthwhile now, plus there are many more builds people are using (instead of the standard cookie-cutter). Aside from getting loot tailored to your class, it can now roll buffs for certain damage types or skills, or completely change the mechanic of a skill (example: Instead of Elemental Arrow costing resources, it now generates resources). Used to be you'd get in a group and everyone of the same class ran the same skills, now I can group with others and we are all using very different builds with near-equal effectiveness depending on our gear/skill preferences.

I personally am very excited for RoS!

 

[davislane1]

Casuals play on normal difficulty and don't require good gear.

I'm casual and I play on torment. The problem is that the game is uninspired and working for good gear (pointless when the AH was around) is still unrewarding. 2.0 fixed the loot problem, but it did not fix the game's core issue of quickly becoming boring.

 

[Sniped_Ash]

Casuals play on normal difficulty and don't require good gear.

I'm casual and I play on torment. The problem is that the game is uninspired and working for good gear (pointless when the AH was around) is still unrewarding. 2.0 fixed the loot problem, but it did not fix the game's core issue of quickly becoming boring.

Hopefully adventure mode and that 10-level random dungeon thing will alleviate that, plus whatever they have planned for Act V. Someplace new to stomp around is going to be great.

 

[Guest]

Coming from a non diablo fan straight up the games is booring. I killed diablo multiple times before I even got to level 60 than I gave up. The content was like having 10 5 man dungeons in wow and than just flogging them to death. The loots really cool but what good is loot if your just running the same crap over and over.

 

[Guest]

CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION. I don't want my character to look like everyone else plus the characters you get to choose from are ugly as t*rd.

 

[treetops]

First time watching the trailer, "fight against death itself", jebus they are far from grace. in diablo, devil, you fight demons not the tooth fairy, not santa clause, not jack the pumpkin king, not the boogie man and not death!

Closing the ah will only make third party sites thrive. Soul bound items are terrible, they make you rely to much on grinding or a AH if it exists. Idk whats up with d3, you cant make your own open game to trade, you cant name your own game, you cant fool around and duel in your game, you cant rush people, again you cant make your own game names, they took control from the user and made it boring. People find their own way to have fun. Well they used to. Oh yeah and the stash is way to small. People used to have like 2-3 mule accounts in d2.

btw about rushing you dont have to let people get rushed through the entire game maybe some parts, it was something to do!!! and the unicorn level wtf are they on retard crack

 

[gingerbill]

Me and my friends started playing again after the introduced the new loot system , the game is a lot more fun when finding items instead of buying them. The AH was a terrible idea and I'm glad they finally seen sense. A game should not be designed for the sad gits with no life who constantly moan while playing for 2000 hours , the type of people who always sound like they are talking about a job they hate and not a game.

The game has improved a lot since I played last . Seems a very good game now and is a lot of fun.

 

[cliffordcooley]

A game should not be designed for the sad gits with no life who constantly moan while playing for 2000 hours , the type of people who always sound like they are talking about a job they hate and not a game.

The game has improved a lot since I played last . Seems a very good game now and is a lot of fun.

My complaint is these games are designed to be played as if they are a job and not a game. I grow tired of matches that last an hour and sometime longer. Makes me not even want to play the game, if it is going to tie up more than 20 minutes at a time.

I don't know anything about Diablo, but the few MMO's (F2P) I have played all seem to want 24/7 attention. And all of them want to nickle and dime you entire wallet for little to nothing on in-game assets. I'm sorry I can't support this type of gaming system. I will continue to play for free, if I can't get something worth paying for. Gear that is sold and outdated a month later will never be worth paying for. The MMO gaming systems I've seen, have no stability in protecting a members purchases for the future.

 

[Kibaruk]

Well I did give it a try to see the new changes and they are awesome

I'm still not sure if buying the exp will be worthwhile but... the changes in loot and crafting makes it pretty neat, also the ability to change difficulties is great.