The gavel has banged for the final time in the controversial Diablo III auction house. The feature, whose addition was blamed for Diablo 3 having an always-online requirement, was closed on Tuesday ahead of next week’s launch of the Reaper of Souls DLC.

As Blizzard originally announced back in September, Diablo III’s auction house was closed in the early hours of March 18th. That coincided with the regular Tuesday server maintenance and the release of D3’s 2.0.1 patch. That patch introduced a new loot system that was designed to eliminate the need for the auction house in the first place.

Blizzard said that their original intention for the auction house was to provide a secure environment for people wanting to buy or sell loot. Diablo II had numerous websites selling gold and loot but not all of them were reputable. Blizzard saw the introduction of their in-game gold and real-world money auction houses as a safe way for those same services to be provided to gamers without risk of being defrauded. If Blizzard made a few bucks off of it, that was a bonus. (And they probably did make a few bucks off of it.)

If you’ve completed a transaction in the auction house, any unclaimed items or gold will be available to you until June 24th. That’s the date that Blizzard will completely close the auction house and remove it from the menu. If you completed cash transactions, they’ll flow through in the usual way.

By the way, Blizzard is holding a sale on copies of Diablo III over on Battle.net if you’re interested. It’s $19.99 USD and regional pricing applies. When you throw on the $40 Reaper of Souls expansion, that brings the complete price of Diablo 3 to $60.

Source: Battle.net