Diablo III real-money auction house aiming for June 12

Blizzard is aiming to launch the Diablo III real-money auction house on June 12, according to an in-game notification spotted by Joystiq. The service was originally slated to arrive around May 22, but was delayed indefinitely just last week, with Blizzard saying it needed "a bit more time to iron out the existing general stability and gameplay issues."

When the Diablo III real-money auction house does arrive, it will allow players to purchase and sell weapons, armor, and other items. As detailed earlier this month, Blizzard will take $1 from every piece of equipment (weapons and armor) successfully sold. For commodities like crafting materials, gems, gold, and what Blizzard described as "stackable" items, the company will enact a 15 percent transaction fee. On top of that, Blizzard will take another 15 percent if gamers elect to move funds to a third-party service like PayPal.

Gamers can avoid that fee (and PayPal's own surcharge) by dumping the cash into their Battle.net account, but there, the funds can be used only to purchase Blizzard games, subscriptions, and merchandise. For more on fees associated with Diablo III's auction house, check out Blizzard's comprehensive FAQ.

The Diablo III real-money auction house is not the only feature missing from the long-awaited game. The dungeon crawler launched without player-versus-player multiplayer, which will be added to the game via a patch at a later date.

For more on Diablo III, check out GameSpot's review.