Farewell to the Diablo III auction house

Diablo III’s auction house system shut down today. The controversial real-money trading floor and the in-game gold auction systems are gone. According to the recently updated auction house FAQ, players have until the 24th of June to retrieve their items and gold. Anything not claimed by then will disappear into the void.

Doing away with the auction house is seen by many as the final step to rebalancing the PC version of Diablo III before the Reaper of Souls expansion launches. In September, Blizzard’s John Hight admitted that the auction house had caused unintended balance issues to the game. Loot drops and gameplay had to be adjusted to account for the ability that any player could just use the auction house to kit their character. With the February release of the Loot 2.0 update, Blizzard re-tuned the game so the auction house could be shut down.

The Reaper of Souls expansion launches next week.