No Real Money Auction House at launch
Posted 1 May 2012 by Rushster
Blizzard dropped a small bomb today that only the Gold AH will be available at launch. The Real Money Auction House will not be available at launch but be online approximately one week after that. Blizzard also put up a comprehensive Auction House guide, with all the information you ever wanted to know about the AH and how to use it.
The gold-based auction house opens its doors worldwide on May 15 with the launch of Diablo III, and we plan to bring the real-money auction house online approximately one week after that. This is a new service that includes lots of complex elements, so we are going to take a little extra time to ensure the game gets off to a good start before we flip the switch and open the real-money auction house for business.
For more information, head to the freshly minted Diablo III Auction House website, or check out the updated Auction House FAQ.
Its funny that they admit that USD, EUR and GBP have each different value, by different account cap for them, yet when it come to transaction fee 1USD=1EUR=1GBP. Europe got screwed again.
1 week delay for RMAH is fine. It give time for price to settle (gold price on RMAH would be insane first week)
I don’t know that I have proof that I called this, but I was thinking to myself that they should hold off on the AHs for a bit so its not so insane. This is a good move I think and will allow folks to wade into the pool instead of doing a cannonball in the deep end. You know I would have put up my first 1K gold for $50. Now I will just play.
Aren’t those currencies all on different servers..so It really doesn’t matter. Just means on the EU server that awesome armor piece will be $5 instead of $8 or $9.
Its true that US dollars and Euros are different servers but you run into the problem of GBP and Euros on the EU servers and you got US Canadian NZ and Australian $s on the US servers, that not mentioning the other country that use something completely different.
something that cost 10 Euros will be costing me 12-16 Euros.
I am not looking forward to buying stuff on EU server given that its usually between 1.2-1.6 Euros to the GBP it means that I will be paying way over the odds in Blizbucks
I guess I just have to use the sell stuff for bucks and use this to buy items, if I do this and cash out I will make more cash.
Not unsurprising, but still not entirely called for. I assume this has something to do with the economy, as they don’t want the first days filled with low-level items so people can get ahead extremely quickly.
This way you make your own way, where everybody starts from ground zero – real cash or not.
Actually, reading it again, they made it seem to be motivated by making sure it works than any other force. I should have realized it was a revenue driven decision. At least the side-effect of that is a good one in my opinion.
Well, so much for my week one wealth accumulation plans. I was totally geared up for selling gold (and leveling items) at ridiculous prices only to buy it back later when the market dropped.
I see zero reason for this.
Because it’s massively broken as it is in the beta?
Do you really think they want to chance millions of players using something that involves real money unless they’re absolutely certain it works?
Money is Gold in this game. Players will be risking gold in the current setup. I don’t see the difference.
because they foresee patching the game (and possibly wiping chars) during the first week ?
Wiping characters no way. Mass wiping/nerfing to items? For sure.
Wonder what the delay is.
Gives us a chance to get into the swing of things I guess. It will probably be a good while before I venture onto the RMAH anyway. Need to watch and learn for a bit first.
I’m going to fathom that the delay stems primarily from their sheer and wholly unmitigated incompetence..
Good. This will give the gold AH a chance to get established, and, perhaps, get people acclimated to using it as their “first stop” AH.
Most probably they expect lags and downtime in first week rush, so they want to avoid potential money loss in some RMAH lag, and release it when all that settle down.
NOoooooOOOooooOOO
Oh well.
This isn’t a small bomb, this is a straight up nuke. This is will mess up plans of anyone who wanted to “play the markets” in the first week. One thing I am really curius, though, a lot of people (relativly speaking) said that they were going to rush to 60 as fast possible to get a head start in RMAH in poll that ran some time ago, but with these news, that will no longer be possible. So, will they still rush to 60 now that it is (to them) pointless? I think we should have a new vote of playstyle in the first week, factoring in these news.
The longer they are lvl 60 the longer they have to farm items for big RMAH opening. So theyll rush to 60 anyway.
If I remember that poll correctly, it had nothing directly to do with the RMAH. It was just “How are you going to do your first playthrough?” with responses like “Take my time and enjoy the story”; “Focus with a single class and rush to 60″, “Try out a bunch of different classes”, etc. Perhaps we’re not thinking of the same poll.
In any case, I suspect that the only sort of “playing the markets” in the first week would just be a case of “playing” fools who are easily separated from their money. People who want to play the auction can still play the gold auction house and then convert their gold over to the RMAH. I also think people are potentially underestimating how much time it will take for them to hit 60, and how many good drops they’ll get along the way.
Yes, the poll itself said nothing about RMAH, however, I distinctly remember that a lot of people elaborated in the comments that they were rushing due to RMAH. And there were a lot of those comments, too, so I think sizeable chunk had that plan.
I do agree about the RMAH strategy, market will be either be too unstable or too small/slow, or both, in the first week, so, not a lot of profot to be made there. Doesn’t change the fact that a lot of people wanted to do that to try to exploit early market.
I’m sure that a few opportunistic individuals had grand designs for the first week, but a few people are going to be crushed no matter what happens when changes are made. I think the vast majority of players are just interested to play the game, and working the auction house is mostly an afterthought – and, again, most serious auction activity wouldn’t have happened in the first week anyway. As such, I can’t consider this a “nuke” of a decision.
PvP not being in the game for several months, on the other hand, is likely a bigger deal to a great number more players. That’s the nuke. This is a “small bomb”.
Yeah, you’re pretty much right. Guess I just thought it was a bigger of a deal when I first saw the post, because I know how long and angry some of the discussions regarding RMAH can get, but thinking it through, this doesn’t really matter, at all. All the economists and wannabe ecomonists will still have their “earn 1,000$ in a week/month/whatever” schemes that they will try using or try selling to some poor idiot, RMAH issue won’t go away, opponents will still be opposed and everybody else will still use it, etc. So, yeah, I agree, a “small bomb”.
this isn’t a small bomb, this is a firecracker. how can anybody seriously make this into some sort of issue? OH NO MY PLANS FOR MAKING A THOUSAND DOLLARS ON LAUNCH DAY ARE RUINED BLIZZARD IS SO INCOMPETENT I’M NOT BUYING THIS GAME NOW
This announcement is too long. Blizzard should remove “at launch” and it’d be perfect.
i would make it 2 week so normal ppl can get some gear to sell too not just china farmers.