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.

Source: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/10974978/

I made sure it wasnt April but wow, was not seeing this happen.

Wow. Just wow.

Really mixed feelings on this.

On one hand, I loved the auction house and real-money auction house. I loved this site when it was called D3rmt, and the "mini-game" within Diablo 3 that involved speculating on materials, gems, plans, sniping on bids at the last minute and so forth. It was a nice break from farming.

On the other hand, playing self-found does add a fun and new challenge, and playing in groups should be more fulfilling.

Thinking ahead to the positives and negatives...

- D2jsp will still reign supreme and those with the new currency in ROS (whatever that turns out to be) will still possess the best items. Forum gold value there will skyrocket.

- There will still be the "haves" and "have-nots", but Blizzard has once again introduced the walled garden, except this time we were exposed to the entire forest first.

- Gold farming bots might go away now that there is no use to possessing 3 billion gold for crafting. Might.

- Will Blizzard provide a lobby or some kind of viable trading channel by March 2014? Back in Diablo 2, I became so frustrated waiting for hours trying to sell/trade my best items, that I just ended up selling them on eBay. Third party sites will spring up and take that slack if Blizzard fails to come through.

Anyone else have thoughts on this?

I am still just stunned.

Hey Blizzard, by the way, if I feel like crafting or using the mystic, or transmogrifying, are you gonna put me through the misery and disgrace of the current Battle.net chat spam garbage that is even worse than Diablo 2 just to buy 1000 Tomes of Secrets?

Just sayin...

My Stone of Jordan thread on the official forums will be really important when the AHs are gone. I hope more people make threads like it.

There should be one thread for Mempos, one thread for Skorns and so on. Each thread maintained by s dedicated player like me.

wrong move

So demand for items will skyrocket before the Auction Houses are closed which means that prices will be sky-high as well. I might wait till March to sell all the godly items that I find between now and March.

I'm hoping this means that higher tier gems will start falling in higher difficulties since you won't be able to buy the gems anymore. As it stands right now it takes such an insane amount of time and effort to max out your gems that its really not worth the diminishing returns you get.

I can tell you what I am thinking is going to happen:

AH and RMAH go away...as they stated over and over in the video, they think that finding items in game is the best, most rewarding, etc, blah blah....

Remember how in the ROS pics that everything was BOA? Guess what boys and girls...there will be no trading...that is going to be their solution to 3rd party sites...all items are BOA. They wont have to mess with any trade channels this way either..It only make sense since all they keep saying is that they want everything self found...

Think I am gonna wait to buy the expansion, because if I am correct, as boring as this game can be....there will be no point for me to play personally...I am just hoping I am not correct with this, but I am thinking that might be what will be the end result of Loot 2.0

O...
M...
G...

Posted by DHAdmin at 09/17/2013 01:08 PM

This caught me by surprise for sure. I was expecting more bind on account items in the expansion, instead they just completely removed the auction house!

I think overall this will be good for the game.

RIP diablohub Price tracker : (
RIP extra free stash space in Completed tab in AH lol

Posted by Pastamon at 09/17/2013 12:17 PM

I can tell you what I am thinking is going to happen:

AH and RMAH go away...as they stated over and over in the video, they think that finding items in game is the best, most rewarding, etc, blah blah....

Remember how in the ROS pics that everything was BOA? Guess what boys and girls...there will be no trading...that is going to be their solution to 3rd party sites...all items are BOA. They wont have to mess with any trade channels this way either..It only make sense since all they keep saying is that they want everything self found...

Think I am gonna wait to buy the expansion, because if I am correct, as boring as this game can be....there will be no point for me to play personally...I am just hoping I am not correct with this, but I am thinking that might be what will be the end result of Loot 2.0

Yeah I can tell you with almost certainty that that's not going to happen.

Wow - I'm stunned by this. Gotta think the 3rd party sites are going to come back in full force in RoS. I don't think removing the AH will be able to prevent people from buying items, but it will make it less secure.

Wow - I'm stunned by this. Gotta think the 3rd party sites are going to come back in full force in RoS. I don't think removing the AH will be able to prevent people from buying items, but it will make it less secure.

Agree not a smart move by Blizzard.

Posted by nuhertz at 09/17/2013 11:25 AM

Wow. Just wow.

Agree wonder if this date means anything for the xpac? Seems like they would be very close to each other.

RIP. AH Button also allowed me to quickly view all my character stashes.

Definitely a surprise. Unsure if it's a good move or not on Blizzard's behalf. Though I suspect @Pastamon surmised correctly--everything will become BoA.... :-0

Should they remove gold completely? Having a currency of trade with or without AH still have issues, alongside the benefits. Maybe the mobs should not drop gold, but crayon so that we can color ourselves wonderful.

Posted by nuhertz at 09/17/2013 11:25 AM

Wow. Just wow.

This^...

So what will my 120k worth of brims be worth? Anyone care to fathom a guess?

Maybe they become the new currency? Provided of course that everything isn't BOA as some peeps think.

I wonder if the March 18th will be expansion/patch release date?