Sign on Options
Theme:
To Dark

World of Warcraft charging for remote auction house service

Blizzard to levy extra $3 subscription fee for buying and selling items through Web browser or Mobile Armory iPhone app.

Blizzard Entertainment already charges over 11 million World of Warcraft players up to $15 a month for access to the world of Azeroth. Now the company hopes those subscribers will be willing to tack on a few extra dollars each month for access to new WOW-related features.

"I have one copper piece from the terrifying gentleman with the glowing eyes. Do I hear two copper pieces? No? Going once, going twice…

The company has announced a beta testing period for World of Warcraft Remote, a $3 monthly subscription service that will allow players to manage their in-game auction house activities from a Web browser or through the World of Warcraft Mobile Armory app for the iPhone and iPod Touch (Blizzard is considering adding support for other mobile devices). During the beta, players will be able to test out all the features of World of Warcraft Remote for free.

Once the service goes live, World of Warcraft players will still be able to use some features without paying for the additional subscription. Browsing auctions, receiving notifications when auctions close or players are outbid, and viewing various character information and status updates will all remain free.

However, bidding and buying out auctions, placing items up for sale, collecting gold, relisting items, or cancelling actions will all be limited to those players who sign up for the additional subscription fee. A list of the in-game realms currently running the World of Warcraft Remote beta test is available on Blizzard's official World of Warcraft forums.

The auction app is just the latest source of revenue for Blizzard, which analysts are expecting to have a very successful year. Pacific Crest Securities' Evan Wilson is predicting that the real-time strategy game Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty will sell more than 6 million copies after it launches July 27. Wedbush's Michael Pachter believes that, combined with the launch of the latest WOW expansion, Cataclysm, Blizzard could see game sales of 12 million units this year.

103 Comments

  • reskaillev

    Posted Jun 14, 2010 2:42 pm GMT

    THIS is ***** hilarious!

    AND PEOPLE ARE STILL PAYING AND PLAYING WOW? WTH

    Blizzard has just added another sin to their page;
    The first one was sloth, with their cataclysm update
    And now we have greed

    5 remaining go go! Blizzard

    Oh and... dont expect I'll buy Diablo 3 or SC2 after reading this! They will pobably do JUST THE SAME!! byebye Blizzard it was fun, but this donkey has hitted his feet already too much against your stone!

  • Lonewolf2785

    Posted Jun 1, 2010 10:17 am GMT

    This will be a big hit in china/Asia markets may be if help root out those dirty little gold farmers too

  • Shadow_Fire41

    Posted May 24, 2010 5:56 pm GMT

    @Deathscythe
    i vote the latter.

  • Glade_Gnarr

    Posted May 24, 2010 2:33 am GMT

    Well here is something good ol' blizzaed would not have done,
    hooray for Activision.

  • MatzeEdend

    Posted May 21, 2010 2:43 pm GMT

    I gave up caring about WoW a long time ago... It was a novel idea at first, but the novelty wore off fast, especially when you reached endgame and all you did was run the same raids over and over again looking for that one piece of equipment you really want that only drops 3% of the time, and then having it go to someone who doesn't even need it... lather, rinse, repeat.

    noooo thanks

  • ComputerJacques

    Posted May 21, 2010 9:06 am GMT

    Wow, what a waste of time making this. People can just go online to check AH. Two thumbs up for useless feature.

  • MSG-Deathscythe

    Posted May 21, 2010 3:51 am GMT

    @storm marine: how's this for logic? WOW is losing subscribers. Should they charge current subscribers more or should they lower the price to attract new subscribers?

  • lock445

    Posted May 20, 2010 7:33 pm GMT

    Activision's greed is reaching their recently acquired brother company. Good job, more gaming greed.

  • will98499

    Posted May 20, 2010 6:41 pm GMT

    Personally speaking, I have a friend who plays WoW. His favorite thing about WoW is actually the economy. He loves to sit on the AH looking for ways to earn money, and plays the market. For a player who likes to do things like that, this option is amazing. In addition, the free features of this application are also quite nice. For a player who doesn't have too much time available to him at home to play the game [married life and wife not liking WoW], it provides a bit more time to just browse the game while at work, doing some planning outside of the game so that you can more efficiently use your time to fight.

    But yeah, it's optional to pay, and most smart consumers won't bother spending the cash.

  • Slagar

    Posted May 20, 2010 5:44 pm GMT

    I'm still curious as to how many people that have played WoW have seriously jeopardized all or parts of their educations, jobs, health, or lives in general...

  • gunwar

    Posted May 20, 2010 2:20 pm GMT

    Next is to open a physical WoW auction house so that players get to leave their computer for 15 minutes but still can still interact with WoW at the same time

  • mad_gamer23

    Posted May 20, 2010 1:44 pm GMT

    Jesus, they are milking that cow like it's nobody's business...

  • SlayerXYZ

    Posted May 20, 2010 12:54 pm GMT

    Now people can go on vacation with there family and be engaged in the WoW auction house with their cell phones... Brilliant

  • Yajarobi

    Posted May 20, 2010 10:44 am GMT

    wow blizzard. huge WoW and SC2 fan and this is just to much

  • Ladiesman17

    Posted May 20, 2010 10:02 am GMT

    WoW is a video game killer for me!! after I play WoW, all games felt "Empty" gdamn Blizzard!!

  • jay_rock_

    Posted May 20, 2010 9:19 am GMT

    money money money thats all they care about...

  • Evenios

    Posted May 20, 2010 9:10 am GMT

    ugh with the glowly horses rip off and now this? let me guess 3 bucks a month extra for the service so instead of paying 15 a month for wow you pay 18 almost? come on. They should include this free.

  • Storm_Marine

    Posted May 20, 2010 6:28 am GMT

    @MSG-Deathscythe: Actually it was Blizzard's parent company that acquired Activision....

    Furthermore what company would drop the subscription price of a game that still owns the majority of the mmo market? Where is the 'logic' in that?

  • Slizergiy

    Posted May 20, 2010 6:19 am GMT

    Its an intresting idear but it something I wouldn't want to use. No point as I don't do that much AH buying/selling plus I do like to do other things other WoW like drawing or wildlife watching.

  • MSG-Deathscythe posted May 20, 2010 4:36 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    MSG-Deathscythe

    Posted May 20, 2010 4:36 am GMT (hide)

    you would think that with super old games like this that the price and subscription fee of the game would go down, but activision's greed defies logic. who's glad now that blizzard was acquired by activision.

  • Decardcain

    Posted May 20, 2010 4:29 am GMT

    ok great game maybe the greatest but we have also a life to live... can t wait for diablo 3

  • glenn634

    Posted May 20, 2010 4:10 am GMT

    They can shove this so far up it'll rattle their teeth. I am not paying any extra for a waste of time like this will be.

  • richioso

    Posted May 20, 2010 2:47 am GMT

    @ProggleRock

    Couldn't agree more, I'm not a WOW player but slating someone for their choice of games is a a waste of time.

    @The-Techspert

    It's been said before but success != quality. eg Nintendo Wii

  • Sirbobislost

    Posted May 20, 2010 2:33 am GMT

    It's a good idea for a feature, always wanted something like this BUT I'm not paying for it end of story!

  • Xstreak

    Posted May 20, 2010 1:57 am GMT

    When Diablo 3 and SC 2 hit...we are gonna see the biggest series of cash-cow milking in gaming history...Activision Blizz is watching...it knows gamers can't wait for those titles....(Kotick gets an evil grin)

  • hangyourcross

    Posted May 20, 2010 1:25 am GMT

    @ psx_warrior

    They're 100% optional paid features that really give you absolutely little to no advantage over anybody that decides not to buy them.

    To my knowledge the only things thus far that Blizzard charges separate fees for now is this new AH stuff, certain 100% cosmetic pets, and certain 100% cosmetic mounts. None of which are anything even remotely important, and as already stated are entirely optional.

  • MrHarris88

    Posted May 20, 2010 12:37 am GMT

    When I was into WoW, it really was amazing. Like WOW. Talk about an immersive game.

  • Evilnator

    Posted May 20, 2010 12:33 am GMT

    Doesnt this beat the purpose of the monthly fee?
    Oh well, im not a WoW player, but i can laugh at them

  • Pete5506

    Posted May 19, 2010 10:35 pm GMT

    Another way to get even more money

  • psx_warrior

    Posted May 19, 2010 10:04 pm GMT

    @Kenji_Masamune Go work for the Federal Reserve. They do it everyday.

  • psx_warrior

    Posted May 19, 2010 9:56 pm GMT

    @hangyourcross What you're not thinking about is that if you have access to all of those features remotely, it must mean that you are a WoW subscriber in the first place. I don't have access to those features because I haven't played the game. They are trying to milk gamers for everything they can muster, and it's got to stop. $15.00 a month should be enough to have to pay monthly, not this extra $3.00 crap.

  • Chickan_117

    Posted May 19, 2010 9:49 pm GMT

    Yet another reason to love Guild Wars

  • BloodMist

    Posted May 19, 2010 9:42 pm GMT

    I really don't see the point of using the AH if you're not actually in the game.It's not like you're using real world money to buy and sell AH stuff.Just nonsense.

  • guitarist1980

    Posted May 19, 2010 9:00 pm GMT

    One day WoW just died for me.. It was dissapointing too because the fun I had within wow was like nothing any other game has given me. But one day it just died for me.. I dont know what happend but after 2 level 70's and a few other higher level characters I just lost the desire to play it.

  • flammable_zeus

    Posted May 19, 2010 8:39 pm GMT

    It seems that now with every new little update Blizzard wants more money.

    Honestly something like this should definitely be a free addition to already-paying subscribers. If anything the monthly cost should actually be reduced.

  • s4dn3s5

    Posted May 19, 2010 8:23 pm GMT

    care blizzy, don't milk your customers too much...

  • atopp399

    Posted May 19, 2010 8:06 pm GMT

    Hmm, they should be reducing the monthly fee not increasing it.

  • alzeer1

    Posted May 19, 2010 7:35 pm GMT

    old game i throw it and didnt look back

  • alzeer1

    Posted May 19, 2010 7:34 pm GMT

    after lvl 70 they put carpage crap armors and items and they just add anythings and lvls its when i see put anything to keep them play ha ha ha balls

  • gunwar

    Posted May 19, 2010 7:32 pm GMT

    WoW is the only game that had me got addicted
    After playing WoW its hard to start other fantasy role playing games

  • Nekromenos

    Posted May 19, 2010 7:15 pm GMT

    WoW is dead to me and I'm really happy it is. Damn, that game was worse than any drug...

  • Sethbeastalan

    Posted May 19, 2010 7:12 pm GMT

    @The-Techspert
    "every MMO since has been trying (and failing) to even get a slice of the success that World of Warcraft has had"

    So you're refuting all evidence that games such as Eve and Maple Story have any subscribers at all...

  • hangyourcross

    Posted May 19, 2010 7:07 pm GMT

    This actually isn't a terrible sounding deal honestly.

    For those too inept to understand why anyone would use their iphone (honestly, this should trigger your braincells at least) or browser rather than the free in-game AH... The obvious reason is that you can now access the AH via mobile, when you're not at home. As well as via browser, which is also a simple concept to understand. You can access the AH from a computer that doesn't have WoW installed. Which mostly will be used by those at work I'd assume.

    So yeah, I don't even play WoW any more, but if I did, I wouldn't knock this feature, and I actually would love if other MMO's I played had similar ones. But WoW is popular and thus awful to all of the hardcore gamers and such, so any news regarding anything about it will always be mocked. Not a big a shocker here.

  • svaubel

    Posted May 19, 2010 7:02 pm GMT

    Wow if you have to obsess over the auction house so much you need a program to do it for you out of game, you really have a problem.

  • wis3boi

    Posted May 19, 2010 6:56 pm GMT

    what's next, you gonna charge people to resurrect or use their hearthstone? I bet Activision would LOVE to do that

  • maximo

    Posted May 19, 2010 6:52 pm GMT

    Played wow for years.. im glad i got out of it... it just sucked the life out of me.... there are so many other games out there worth playing

    I like to play them

  • Icehearted

    Posted May 19, 2010 6:50 pm GMT

    @Ovirew

    You'd be surprised, my friend.

  • voidshadow

    Posted May 19, 2010 6:45 pm GMT

    @The-Techspert

    LOL? You are trolling right? One of the best games ever or even of our generation? You must have a very limited sample of games in your mind. I can go on and on about how WoW is just the current popular game in an industry that is usually dominated by one MMO at a time...Everquest being the previous one. Or how your idea of "appreciation" is also eerily close to addiction. However, I won't waste my time.

    WoW is more like a sponge, attracting and retaining the filth and fail of the internet by leading them into a false sense of belonging to a community...a community the vast majority of them will never have any real relationship with IRL. imho WoW is a wonderful tool for keeping introverts and failure in their domicile so I don't have to deal with them as much on a day to day basis.

  • SIR-RAMBO-ROCKS

    Posted May 19, 2010 6:41 pm GMT

    @Ovirew most likely ever person that plays WoW.......

  • Ovirew

    Posted May 19, 2010 5:42 pm GMT

    Who in the right mind would actually pay for this?

Subscribe to GameSpot's YouTube Channel

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

Featured Stories

Submit News

Got tips? Send them in!