You are probably aware that Diablo 3 is going to have a special Auction House that works with real money. Players who have found a rare item will be able to offer it for real money at this Auction House, instead of eBay.
(Btw, the real-money transactions are the main reason Diablo 3 had problems getting the blessing of Korea’s game board. Blizzard had to remove the feature for Korean audiences, thus delaying the game further.)
It was always clear that the real-money auction house (RMAH from now on) was a way for Blizzard to get additional money from power players. The interesting bit is HOW MUCH!
Tobold’s blog reveals that the minimum price of any one item at RMAH is $1.50. So in a way it is similar to Apple’s iTunes (or AppStore) where the most common price is $0.99. Apple takes a 30% cut off your App revenue.
It looks like Blizzard is a lot GREEDIER than Apple. If you post an item for $1.50 and you sell it, Blizzard gets $1.25. Yes, that’s right. You get 25 cents and they get the remaining … 83%!
Of course, Blizzard fanboys would argue that the percentage is much lower on a $150 item but whoa… who wants to pay $150 for a Diablo 3 item? With competition as intense (millions playing), you could bet that MOST items will have to be priced at the minimum in order to find a buyer.
Note: The Diablo 3 beta has tested the RMAH, however, instead of real money, players were give 50 “fake” beta bucks. Of course, prices of items during the beta don’t allow us to make predictions about the real game. There are very few items in the beta worth money, the money is not real, and there only a few thousand players playing.
