When I first heard about the plans to implement an Auction House into Diablo 3, I was skeptic and worried about how such a tool would impact a loot-focused game. Call me a Cynic, but all I saw was an attempt to justify always-online and to make some money out of micro-transactions. I ended up getting the game at launch anyway and, as my PS3 review touches on, I was not all that happy and it was indeed the AH’s fault.

The PS3 version seemed to be the Diablo we all had been waiting for, and other PC users were frustrated by this fact. Today, Blizzard has announced its plans to discontinue the Auction House, with a phase-out leading to closure in March 18th 2014, and to implement “loot 2.0”, that will revise the reward system to match the needs of the community. This a bold move by Blizzard but most importantly a clear demonstration that the company does listen to its players and is willing to take action and revert mistakes instead of digging its heels in. Kudos.

From Blizzard’s Blog Announcement

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.