Aug 2, 2011 22:01 GMT  ·  By

Video game developer Blizzard has clarified that it does not plan to introduce a real money in-game item auction house for its MMO World of Warcraft despite having plans to do so for the upcoming hack-and-slash title Diablo III.

Rob Pardo, who is actively working on Diablo III, has said that having a real-world money auction house was not suited for World of Warcraft because the game had an item system build around the prestige system, with a number of objects linked to in-game achievements and connected to the history of certain characters.

World of Warcraft is also a much bigger game than Diablo III will ever be and the players are interacting more with each other, meaning that the imbalances that could be introduced by allowing real world money used to buy the most powerful items could be bigger and could split the community.

Diablo III is a game where the main action is that of player against the environment, which means that getting a good object off another players by using real currency will have an effect on a smaller number of players.

The system that Blizzard announced for Diablo III will allow all players to post a number of objects in an auction house for free each week, with more slots available via payment for those who need them.

The company will take a flat fee for each posting and each completed transaction and will not directly sell any items in the auction house.

The money that is acquired via transactions can then be used by players in the online Blizzard Store, including on-purchasing subscription time for World of Warcraft, or can be checked out using a partner that Blizzard has not announced yet.

A beta for Diablo III will be launched during the fall of this year, which might mean that the full game will arrive in early 2012.