Diablo III Auction Houses To Close Next March
When Blizzard announced that they were adding an auction house to Diablo III, it might not have seemed to be a huge deal at the time. Once the game went live, however, many people became critical of the auction house, especially the real money auction house, when it became apparent that many folks could essentially buy their way to the top instead of actually playing the game to look for weapons. Not that you could blame them, after all, the loot system was systematically broken, and you’d hardly ever find any loot that could actually benefit your character.
When the new expansion Reaper of Souls is released next year, however, things will be different. Blizzard announced yesterday that on March 18th, 2014 they will be removing both the regular, gold-based auction house as well as the real money auction house from the game. In a short statement on the Blizzard website, the reason they gave about why they’re removing the auction houses was that “…it ultimately undermines Diablo‘s core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.”
It’s a bold move, for sure, but will it be enough to improve Diablo III‘s image with the gaming community? Honestly, it probably won’t do a whole lot. The game has been out since last year, and while it might have set some sales records at the time, many people are still peeved at all the issues the game has had since that release. Still, removing the auction houses might be a good start at making the game a bit more like, well, Diablo II, but there’s still a long way to go before it can get to that level.
