During a press event for Diablo III last week, Blizzard revealed that players will be able to sell their in-game items (or purchase in-game items) for real world money. This will be in addition to a trade system based solely on in-game currency.
Images courtesy of Kotaku
Destructoid breaks down how the system works.
Blizzard will not be selling anything themselves through the Diablo III auction house, leaving the economy entirely up to the players of the game. Those who choose to play in the "Hardcore" game mode, will not be able to use items purchased in the auction house. Those not playing the Hardcore mode can purchase items for PvP use.
While Blizzard will have a largely hands off approach, they will be taking a small amount of cash through "listing fees" from players. At present, these listing fees are a flat rate, no matter how rare or powerful a listed item is. It is expected that they will offer a set number of "free listings" granted to players each week to encourage the use of the system even from casual players.
Essentially, Blizzard is offering this real world currency auction house as a means to stay one step ahead of the game. It's almost a given that players would have taken to selling their items for real world money through other, third-party sites such as eBay, so why not just cut out that middleman and give players a first-party solution to what they would have done anyway.
Again, the real currency isn't a requirement for any player and there will still be an auction house system for those just wishing to trade with in-game currency.
Images courtesy of Kotaku
Destructoid breaks down how the system works.
For the most part, it operates similarly to the World of Warcraft auction house: the major difference being that real money is involved. Items can be listed directly from your stash, which is now shared between every character on your account. (In Diablo II, every character's stash was only accessible by that character, and transferring items between your own characters was a massive pain in the ass.) Sellers can set a minimum starting bid and sell the item like a true auction, set a buyout price and skip the auction , or both. One other, smaller difference is that buyers and sellers will be completely anonymous; this makes sense to me, given the presence of real money.
Once you successfully sell an item, you have a choice to make. The money you made from that sale can go to one of two places: it can be deposited into your Blizzard account, or it can be cashed out through a third-party service.
If you deposit it into your Blizzard account, only basic listing and sales fees apply. You get the full value of your item, and that money can be used for anything Blizzard-related: other auctions, your WoW subscription fee, and even merchandise from the Blizzard store.
Money deposited into a Blizzard account, however, cannot be later cashed out into real money -- this would invoke a whole host of legal issues, with Blizzard essentially acting as a bank. If you choose to cash out through the third-party service, that company will take a small percentage of your cashout, but your money will be available to you as real cash, either added to your credit card or deposited into a PayPal or bank account.
To reduce the risk of people cornering the market or artificially driving up prices (like we see on WoW servers), there will only be one auction house for each currency -- if your country is in the eurozone, your auction house is shared with all other euro-using countries. The typical WoW server only has around 5,000 players, making it easy for players there to fix prices and damage the economy. It will be much harder for that to occur in Diablo, simply because of the sheer volume of users.
Once you successfully sell an item, you have a choice to make. The money you made from that sale can go to one of two places: it can be deposited into your Blizzard account, or it can be cashed out through a third-party service.
If you deposit it into your Blizzard account, only basic listing and sales fees apply. You get the full value of your item, and that money can be used for anything Blizzard-related: other auctions, your WoW subscription fee, and even merchandise from the Blizzard store.
Money deposited into a Blizzard account, however, cannot be later cashed out into real money -- this would invoke a whole host of legal issues, with Blizzard essentially acting as a bank. If you choose to cash out through the third-party service, that company will take a small percentage of your cashout, but your money will be available to you as real cash, either added to your credit card or deposited into a PayPal or bank account.
To reduce the risk of people cornering the market or artificially driving up prices (like we see on WoW servers), there will only be one auction house for each currency -- if your country is in the eurozone, your auction house is shared with all other euro-using countries. The typical WoW server only has around 5,000 players, making it easy for players there to fix prices and damage the economy. It will be much harder for that to occur in Diablo, simply because of the sheer volume of users.
Blizzard will not be selling anything themselves through the Diablo III auction house, leaving the economy entirely up to the players of the game. Those who choose to play in the "Hardcore" game mode, will not be able to use items purchased in the auction house. Those not playing the Hardcore mode can purchase items for PvP use.
While Blizzard will have a largely hands off approach, they will be taking a small amount of cash through "listing fees" from players. At present, these listing fees are a flat rate, no matter how rare or powerful a listed item is. It is expected that they will offer a set number of "free listings" granted to players each week to encourage the use of the system even from casual players.
Essentially, Blizzard is offering this real world currency auction house as a means to stay one step ahead of the game. It's almost a given that players would have taken to selling their items for real world money through other, third-party sites such as eBay, so why not just cut out that middleman and give players a first-party solution to what they would have done anyway.
Again, the real currency isn't a requirement for any player and there will still be an auction house system for those just wishing to trade with in-game currency.
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