Given that we’re on the precipice of a Diablo IV release, it’s a good time to reminisce about the last iteration of the Diablo series and its one experimental foray into digital markets.
Diablo III was launched in the year of the Mayan apocalypse on May 15, 2012. Piggy-backing on the successes of Diablo II, III aimed to bring yet more endless-hack-and-slash action to gamers on next generation PCs and consoles. One wrinkle in the game’s presentation was a new marketplace – the Real Money Auction House (RMAH). Here was a marketplace where players could buy and sell randomly generated (RNG) weapons and armor that they had come across in game. The right combination of stats and abilities could fetch very high prices, in some cases, hundreds of dollars.
As you can imagine, many players took issue with having to shell out real money to acquire the right kind of gear in game. Amidst a huge player backlash, the RMAH was shut down in March of 2014. Since then, no game has really dabbled with a real money auction house for in-game items in the same way.
For some inside dope into Blizzard’s thinking during this experiment, former Joystiq columnist Mike Schramm talked about getting a sneak peak at Diablo III and the RMAH and the feedback he was asked for from the Blizzard dev team.
This discussion was on the AI-centric podcast, AI-ffected with Russ Gooberman.
