Blizzard Entertainment has sent out emails to Diablo III owners with a notice that they are going to be shutting down the real money auction house on March 18, 2014.
The new feature initially received quite a bit of criticism but seemed to be holding it’s own during the first few months of the games release. Over time, Blizzard has changed it’s view of how the real money auction house impacts the game and has decided that it “ultimately undermines Diablo’s core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.” Below is the official notice. Your can also read Blizzard’s blog post about the closure.
“We are writing tell you about an important change to Diablo III: we’re going to be removing the gold and real-money auction house system from the game.
When we initially designed and implemented the auction house system, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But after much review and player feedback, 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.
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 final shutdown will occur on March 18, 2014. We will keep everyone informed as we work through this process, but feel free to check out our blog post on the subject, and stay tuned to Diablo 3.com for further details.
– The Diablo III team
