Diablo 3 Auction House To Use Real Money

Will World of Warcraft Get Real Money Auction House In The Future?

An announcement has been made about Diablo 3's Auction House System and while not being directly about World of Warcraft many implications can be drawn from the new development. Diablo 3's Auction house will feature the ability to buy and sell items for cash, that's right, real life, hard earned money. The auction house will also allow players to buy and sell using gold, it will be up to players to which currency they want to trade in.

Truly ground-breaking and uncharted territory for the video game world. No company has ever done anything like this before. Potentially players could make money while they play and Blizzard will profit from taking a small cut from each transaction. This could be an excellent solution to manage gold farming and gold sales in Diablo 3. 

I find that I must ask myself an important question. If Diablo 3's Auction House is successful will they bring it to World of Warcraft? While it would be ideal to manage the gold farming and selling that has plagued the game it would likely disrupt the games economy being implemented so late in the game. The community would likely be in outrage with such a dramatic change to the original system that has been in place for the past seven years. I don't think it out of the realm of possibility that Blizzard would ever port over the real money auctions to World of Warcraft but I doubt it. I do believe if it is successful in Diablo 3 they would implement it in their future games. Potentially they stand to generate a lot of revenue from this new auction house.

I won't be buying anything from the auction house because I believe in paying for in game items. At first I was skeptical to think that enough people would be buying things with real money but after I think about many players will buy exclusive and rare items. I never would  guess that players would buy gold or items for a game but they do. For example in World of Warcraft many players will buy the exclusive Pet-Store items and Trading Card items. I think it all boils down to price and just exactly how rare the item is.

I look forward to seeing how well the system works. It seems like the most complicated and difficult task the Blizzard has ever taken on. They will have to manage millions of transactions between millions of players. Most of all I just want to see if I can make a little cash while I enjoy playing a video game.