Blizzard Takes The World Of Warcraft Auction House Out Of Game

Fancy shopping for new armor and enchanting components on your iPhone? Blizzard is working on giving players access to the World of Warcraft auction house through the WoW Armory, meaning players could soon do their in-game shopping everywhere they go.

The news comes by way of the World of Warcraft forums, with Blizzard poster Bornakk informing players of the new development in a post titled “Update: Auction House & Armory Integration.” According to the post, a service is now in development that will allow players to access the auction house through the Armory website, as well as the Armory App for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Once released, it will be the first major MMO player auction house available outside of the game itself, and workplace productivity among World of Warcraft players will drop like a stone.

There are a few things to keep in mind, however. First, this is a Blizzard service, which means they won’t release it until they are damn good and ready, and second, as Bornakk points out, elements of the service will be premium-based, which means there is certain functionality you may end up having to pay extra for.

This is a fairly complex service to develop, due in large part to its unprecedented integration with the game, so we don’t have an exact release date yet. It’s important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we’ll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized. As with all of the services we offer, we plan to integrate the Auction House and Armory in a way that won’t disrupt the gameplay experience, and we won’t release it until it meets the quality standards that we’ve set for our other features and services.

Once the service is finished, it will be a major milestone in MMO development, as well as a major time-sink. I know how many hours I’ve personally spent sitting in the auction house at Ogrimmar, mindlessly flipping through listings, and I’m not even that hardcore a player. I imagine many a twink will be outfitted from the comfort of toilets around the world once the service goes live.

Update: Auction House & Armory Integration [WoW Forums – Thanks Noel!]

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