Blizzard acknowledges that the Auction House of Diablo III subverts the core gameplay of the game and will be shutting it down March 18, 2014.
After being absent from the recently released console versions of the game, and the constant abuse and exploitative environment users have brought to the in game Auction House of Diablo III it doesn’t come as a big surprise for Blizzard to shut it down. Other than the date, Blizzard hasn’t said much else but we can expect more details to come out this year’s Blizzcon (Nov. 8-9)
This is a big step forward and puts the focus back on killing, grinding and earning awesome loot instead of letting players simply buy gear. Removing the Auction Houses won’t outright stop the buying and selling of gear and gold but it will shape the gameplay for loot 2.0 with higher gold drops and a better balance of loot drops. If Blizzard wants to really win some good faith with the PC owners of Diablo III they should consider letting gamers play without an internet connection.
