Blizzard is always looking at the Benjamins, and Diablo III could be their next cash cow. They are instituting a new set of rules for how transactions take place in the auction houses in Diablo III. On any type of transaction there will be a fixed fee, removed from the profits generated on a successful sale or simply a percentage—this applies to in game currency and real world money.
Weapons, armor, accessories, and other unique items fall under these rules:
- Transaction Fee (Gold Auction House): 15% of final sale price
- Transaction Fee (Real-Money Auction House): $1.00 USD per item / $1.00 AUD per item
- Transfer Fee (when sending proceeds to PayPal or other authorized payment-service provider): 15% of amount being transferred
Gems, materials, dyes, pages, recipes, and other non-unique items fall under these rules:
- Transaction Fee (Gold Auction House): 15% of final sale price
- Transaction Fee (Real-Money Auction House): 15% of final sale price
- Transfer Fee (when sending proceeds to PayPal or other authorized payment-service provider): 15% of amount being transferred
No matter how this cake is cut, there will be less for the users and more for Blizzard. This could simply turn into a way to try and control flow of money in the auction house, but the laughable part of this model is how Blizzard has set it up to take 15% twice from a player on a single complete transaction.