No date yet, but surely we will all know soon enough!
http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/events/diablo3-announcement/index.html#summary
The Auction House has been announced at the press event, providing a great way for players to trade and gain loot. There are two variations of the AH, one that permits trading for in-game currency and the other uses real world currency for it’s transactions.
The Auction House uses an anonymous player to player transactional system. It’s no secret that Diablo and Diablo 2 had it’s own virtual market for buying/selling items. Blizzard has taken an intelligent initiative to control that market and keep it in-game, promoting legitimacy and stifling scamming. This author is excited to consider the potential of being awarded for spending time in his beloved virtual reality, Sanctuary by cashing in with real life currency for those long nights searching for loot. Two markets create a stimulated economy for both casual and hardcore players. Some people might want to keep their trading in-game but more dedicated players may want to spend those dollars to truly twink out their toon.
The real currency Auction House will not be available to Hardcore players.
If you have further questions, check out DiabloFans’ Q&A with Jay Wilson and the Official Blizzard Diablo 3 Auction House FAQ!
Much to the dismay of hardcore LAN partiers everywhere, Diablo 3 will require an active internet connection to play. However, looking on the bright side of things, it seems Blizzard has totally revamped the party/social experience of the “waiting lobby” in Battle.net. You now have a visually appealing friends list, which gives you an at-a-glance overview of your friends online status. It also seems you will be able to form parties outside of games, while you are still in the Battle.net lobby. Your Diablo 3 character selection screen will also have visual indications of your characters status and difficulty completion, these “tokens” can be a pile of bloody skulls (hardcore) to new icons on your class tabard; it’s overwhelming how sexy they make statistics about your character.
It’s finally here, the night we’ve all been waiting for. At midnight, the non-disclosure agreement that bound visitors of Blizzard’s press event (which has been going on the past several days) will be lifted and details surrounding Diablo 3 and the beta will start to flood blogs and message board net-wide. Stay tuned or join the CoverItLive chat and hang out with us while we digest and categorize all the great new Diablo 3 information!
