As promised last September, Blizzard shut down the much-hated Diablo III Auction House last night at 3:00AM PT. That sound you just heard was thousands of gamers booting the game back up again.
This is part Blizard's plan of removing the service and replacing it with a new looting system (Loot 2.0) which will come with the upcoming Reaper of Souls expansion.
"When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But as we've mentioned on different occasions, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot," wrote Diablo III's Production Designer John Hight at the time of the announcement. "With that in mind, we want to let everyone know that we've decided to remove the gold and real-money auction house system from Diablo III. We feel that this move along with the Loot 2.0 system being developed concurrently with Reaper of Souls will result in a much more rewarding game experience for our players."
The service ended during scheduled maintenance and all active auctions expire as normal, with items and unclaimed gold appearing in each player's Completed Tab. You can claim these items but you'll have to do it before June 24, 2014, lest it be consumed by Treasure Goblins and never seen again.
Your Battle.net Balance total won't be affected by the shutdown of the auction houeses, and you'll still be able to use it to purchase services and games from Battle.net, although you can't convert the balance into cash.
You can read Blizzard's FAQ for full details on how it works but the basics are- Diablo III has been improved for the better, just in time for the mammoth new Reaper of Souls expansion that hits on March 25.
