Blizzard have revealed plans to remove the Diablo III money and gold auction houses in March 2014. Speaking in a development update, John Hight and Josh Mosqueira, the production director and game director respectively, revealed the plans to remove Diablo III’s controversial feature. The pair explained their reasoning to be that the auction house was contradictory to Diablo’s core gameplay.
“When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades,” Hight stated. “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.”
The auction houses are planned to be removed on March 18th 2014, almost 2 years since the original PC launch.
What are your thoughts on the removal of Diablo III’s Auction Houses? Will it convince you to play Diablo III a bit more with them being gone? Let us know in the comments.