Diablo 3 to not feature Microtransactions

"So Julian Wilson told us that you guys are looking monetize Battle.Net in some way. Is that right?

Rob Pardo: Wow, that's an evil way of putting it. Julian's turning into a business guy on me. Here's the way I would put it. We're definitely not looking at turning Diablo into a subscription based game. It's clearly not an MMO, so it's not appropriate to do a business model like that. The way we approach all of our games now, is we come up with what we think is a great game, and then we wrap the appropriate business model around it. If that's just a box price, then that's that.

With Battle.Net we're definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money. We're not talking about Hellgate or anything like that. We're not going to tack things on. I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren't core to the game experience, they're really just optional things that some people want. It takes us some development work to do it, so it makes sense to charge for it. We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you'll have to pay extra."

I've always liked Rob Pardo :D...anyways..discuss

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/

Yeah, its definitely legitimate.crazymaghie123

thank you :P...Good news indeed. :)

Linkified http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/

Honestly this was one of the few things I heard about D3 that I didn't like, I read this earlier and was a bit relieved. I just hope they stick to this though...

It's all good though...I really don't know what all the arm-flailing is...seems like every little change people are having a fit and going off the deep end. From what I have read about D3, the game sounds fantastic. The rune skill system especially sounds neat.

Good news, and good timing. Blizzard's rep has gone down the can in the last few months, and not with general gamers but with (part of) their core fanbase. First Diablo 3 is set in gummydrop land, then fans are going to have to buy StarCraft 2 three times, then monetising Diablo 3 features?

These guys could use a little PR training. They're leaving far too much open to interpretation and speculation.

I think they are doing fine PR wise...they are releasing a lot of information. trouble is, Blizzard has a very loyal and huge fanbase...but this is a double edged sword. Some of these people are like zealots who literally fly of the hinge at any change or "infringement of the diablo formula". They blow everything out of proportion and really are just silly.

Nothing you can do about this though...

That changes everything, I honestly thought they were going to pull a Hellgate London. :|chrisrooR

Yeah, it never made sense to me since Rob Pardo has never supported microtransactions of that sort and he is the executive producer