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Blizzard Details Diablo III Auction House Fees

Blizzard has revealed the cut it's taking out of every transaction. Will players find its demands reasonable?

If you're selling weapons, armor, accessories, or unique items using the in-game currency, Blizzard expects 15 percent of your profits. If you would rather receive real-world cash for the item, Blizzard will take $1.00 per transaction. With a minimum sale price of $1.25, that would net you a cool quarter. If you sell an item at the maximum value of $250, however, you get to keep $249.

When selling commodities like gems, dyes, or recipes, Blizzard takes 15 percent of the final transaction price regardless of whether you want in-game currency or real-world cash in return.

Once your transaction for real-world money is finalized, you can choose where to distribute your new funds. Electing to move the money into your Battle.net account accrues no additional fees. This balance can be applied toward other Auction House transactions or digital purchases of other Blizzard products. If you'd rather transfer the money into a PayPal account, Blizzard takes an additional 15-percent cut. That would turn your $249 into $211.65.

Do you think these transaction fees seem fair? To read more about how the Auction House works, check out the FAQ

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Comments
  • Too many hidden fees tagged on to this. Also I find it ridiculous to pay 200 bucks for a bunch of HQ rendered polygons. So no auction house for me.

    Also first??

    PS: Before anyone points out that games are 60 a pop and plus DLCs as a counter argument, I have one thing to say 'GAMEFLY!!!" Also very selective about DLC's.
  • I guess this means I wont be using the auction house.
  • The success of this system depends on how well Blizzard protects the sanctity of the game. Diablo 3 will undoubtably be a great game. However, it will not prevent me from getting Torchlight II, you know, for "those times".
  • I wasn't too excited for the auction house anyway.

  • There's nothing wrong with this necessarily. All of these are fees only for people who wish to use them. There's still nothing keeping friends from dropping loot in a hidden corner of a room is there?

    One of the things I loved about D II though was all of the "I HAVE 80000 SOJ's IN THIS ROOM COME AND GET THEM" rooms that tended to weed out idiots. Is it bad that Blizzard trying to get rid of this makes me a bit sad?
  • I'll be curious to see what comes out of this. I wonder what the average sale price will be for people who sell (either in game gold or real world cash). I can see it being big for a while just due to the novelty, but I wonder if it will have legs.
  • What is the purpose of them taking a 15% cut on in-game currency? What do they gain from that? Surely they could just give themselves as much currency as they wanted.
  • Still love Diablo games regardless, but I'm not really sure about this whole auction house idea. Maybe I'll research it a little more before writing it off completely.

    Why does Blizzard/Activision even need a cut of my(or anybody's) in game currencies?

    EDIT: Whatever... I wasn't really planning on using the auction house feature anyway. Just gimme Diablo3 already!
  • Fair. Blizzard has every right to not allow users to profit off in-game items. The fact that it intends to make money using the system it created to allow users to make money doesn't bother me at all. To the "But I worked hard for that [name of item]" complaint, I counter that you probably did not work as hard as the umpteen Blizzard employees who created a game that allowed you to work hard for that [name of item].
  • That's um...confusing. I mean on paper it makes sense but it just seems like that might run some confusion when people start using it. And personally I don't like the whole skimming 15% off of pretend currency. I mean couldn't blizzard just make more if they want to? I don't know this just seems like it will create confusion later on.
  • i think this is fair. most people will just be looking to sell the rare items they find anyways. whether u have $249 on battle.net or $211 in your freakin paypal account, either way its *** money all because u found wirts wrinkled *** or something. if you don't like it i think its fair that they make it entirely optional, so don't touch it.
  • Eh, I wasn't going to use the Auction House anyways. Takes the fun out of looting.

  • I'm absolutely okay with the way Blizzard is handling fees with the Auction House. You don't need to use the AH to buy or sell, it's optional. Blizzard wanting to make money off these in game transactions is just smart business and a way to protect their assets. I'll be very interested to see how this turns out, and how many people actually use the Auction House.

  • I don't know why people would want to pay real cash for such things.
  • This game is Pay 2 Win. Who the hell is actually buying this garbage? You might as well pop in Diablo 2 and actually enjoy yourself. Or just wait for Torchlight 2 that has none of this pay actual money bullcrap.
  • Yuck

  • I think it's total BS to bring real world economies into a video game. It should be an even playing field, but now the advantage goes to the rich or to the hardcore.
  • Staff
    This will quite interesting to watch and see how it develops.
  • At least they are telling the fans about this before hand and not as the transaction occurs.
  • $Chaching$ These guys are uber brilliant. By exploiting most players innate coveted self seeking ego, they are gonna be picking up buckets of gold for a long time. I've done research and the micro-transactions that people spend real money for on in game items like facebook for a few $ here and there is ridiculous. I think it's quite likely this game will net them much more $ than actual copy's of the game being sold. The method to keep it optional for users is also very wise.
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