{"id":107006,"date":"2022-10-24T23:37:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T23:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/diablo-3s-ill-fated-real-money-auction-house-couldnt-be-removed-for-one-very-mundane-reason\/"},"modified":"2022-10-24T23:37:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T23:37:57","slug":"diablo-3s-ill-fated-real-money-auction-house-couldnt-be-removed-for-one-very-mundane-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/diablo-3s-ill-fated-real-money-auction-house-couldnt-be-removed-for-one-very-mundane-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"Diablo 3’s Ill-Fated Real-Money Auction House Couldn’t Be Removed For One Very Mundane Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Players who were around for Diablo III’s launch in 2012 will probably remember the auction house: a gameplay mechanic where players could buy and sell their in-game items for real-world money. <\/p>\n

The feature was controversial right from the start, but it didn’t disappear completely until 2014. Now, we know why. During a panel at Portland Retro Gaming Expo (via PC Gamer), Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson shared why it took so long for Blizzard to remove the unpopular mechanic.<\/p>\n

“The reason we did not get rid of it right away when we saw it was a problem was legally we didn’t think we could because it was advertised on the boxes,” Wilson said. “So we actually took a long time to try and work out all the legal issues before we finally said, ‘okay, we think it’s worth trying it, if we get a argument oh well.'”<\/p>\n

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Wilson also noted that the auction house was not very popular, saying, “If it made more than 10 or 15 million [dollars] I’d be surprised. It sounds like a lot of money but WoW probably made that every 10 seconds. It was not very popular.”<\/p>\n

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Blizzard revealed Diablo III’s player-driven auction house in 2011. It wasn’t until nearly a year and a half after launch that Blizzard finally announced the auction house would shut down. The service finally came to a close in March 2014, along with Blizzard admitting the mechanic undermined the point of Diablo.<\/p>\n

Diablo III’s removal of the auction house mechanic led to a huge turnaround for the game. Blizzard eventually introduced the “Loot 2.0” system that rebalanced drops, giving players a much better experience. This led to the very well-received Diablo III Eternal Collection, and propelled Diablo III onto our list of games that made a major comeback.<\/p>\n