Blizzard Entertainment will be closing the gold and real money auction house featured in Diablo III.
Posted on the Diablo III site, Production Director, John Hight comments:
“…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.”
Hight also mentions that the removal of the gold and real money auction house “will result in a much more rewarding game experience for our players”, along with the Loot 2.0 system being developed in tandem with the next expansion to Diablo III, Reaper of Souls.
The shut down of the gold and real money auction house will occur on 18 March 2014. Blizzard have not mentioned any further details on how the system will be shut down as yet.