Diablo 3 to close auction houses as Blizzard admits they undermine gameplay

Blizzard has announced that it will remove Diablo 3’s auction houses on March 18th 2014.

The developer has admitted that the facility undermines gameplay by enabling players to buy and sell weapons and armour using either real-world cash or in-game gold.

Some gamers have complained that the auction houses make the game less satisfying to play, as the purpose of the title is to kill monsters and collect the dropped weapons and equipment, enabling players to kill higher level monsters and move up the ranks.

"Definitely a step in the right direction," reads a comment on Blizzard’s forum.

Another forum user added: ‘Holy crap guys – major props. This could not have been an easy decision to make, especially with revenue on the line. It needed to be done – good job."

As official statement from Josh Mosqueira, Diablo 3’s game director, reads: "We firmly believe that by shutting down the real-money and the gold auction houses, it really paves the way to make sure that killing monsters in-game is the most rewarding, the most satisfying, the most compelling way of getting your hands on those items."

Other gamers are not so happy about the news, as they now have six months to get rid of all their accumulated money, which cannot be transferred out of the game.

"I have accumulated about $100 on the real-money auction house… if you allowed me to transfer it to Paypal even, that would be something, but you basically just ripped off every successful player on your game," said one user on the forums.