The
World of Warcraft Armory is now beta testing a long-awaited feature for the iPhone and iPod touch -- the remote auction house. During the beta test, all features -- including premium features like buying and selling items and collecting gold are available for testing and free to use. After the beta test ends, a subscription to
World of Warcraft Remote will be required to access these features -- for now though, it's all free. Check out the full
F.A.Q on the auction house system, and download the tool for testing from the
Armory website.
If you do not have an iPhone or iPod touch, the
web version of the Remote Auction House is also in beta testing -- players with characters on the servers available for testing can access the Auction House for their realm via the Armory website. The full list of servers available for beta testing is after the break.
Update: A gallery for the web feature has been added.
- Anub'arak
- Blackwater Raiders
- Bladefist
- Cenarion Circle
- Cenarius
- Darrowmere
- Echo Isles
- Fenris
- Hyjal
- Korialstraaz
- Lightbring
- Maiev
- Misha
- Ravenholdt
- Shu'halo
- Sisters of Elune
- The Forgotten Coast
- Uther
- Vashj
- Winterhoof
Other realms will be added as beta testing continues, but for now, these are the realms available for testing. Check out the gallery for more images from the application.
Tags: breaking, iphone, wow-armory, wow-armory-iphone, wow-mobile, wow-remote-auction-house
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
May 19th 2010 at 12:01AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
Nick May 19th 2010 12:08AM
Seriously, 2.99 a month? This should be an included feature, how many people are actually going to use this service?
Teron May 19th 2010 12:10AM
More than I want to think about unfortunatly.
Alchemistmerlin May 19th 2010 12:16AM
25 dollar star spangled pony.
10 dollar small pet.
Oriflame May 19th 2010 12:32AM
not only 3 bucks, but I'll buy an iPhone to use it, and my wife will too... I've got the money and I think its fun. That's not so bad. 3 dollars a month - that's what, half a beer at a bar?
Yeah, I don't want to see the game be one that costs a hundred different small fees, but this is the exact kind of thing I think would be fun and is worth my leisure dollars.
Gregg Reece May 19th 2010 12:40AM
What you're paying for is convenience, not an additional feature.
Also, adding the fee actually adds a layer of security on top of things as it prevents hackers from just getting your username/password and selling all of your stuff from a web interface.
I just hope that they require anyone who uses this feature to use an Authenticator.
Oriflame May 19th 2010 12:47AM
good point - anyone with a ton of time can already do what you can likely do in the app and more. I'm not sure what the concern is with letting them do their AH business on the go on their Iphone instead of the Mac Book.
Sumanai May 19th 2010 12:56AM
To Oriflame (and everyone else saying they'll buy an iPhone just for this):
you dont need an iPhone to access it on the run. Any current generation phone with a browser can access it through the normal web interface and by the look of the screenshots it seems a lot more complete.
Deathgodryuk May 19th 2010 2:51AM
I don't understand how this will be useful to anyone who does any regular AH business. Trying to use the AH without an AH addon like Auctioneer is already a good way to lose gold. Now people are going to lose money so that they can lose gold?
raspybunk May 19th 2010 3:27AM
At least as many people as know how to script a program to do all their AH work on all their alts always without signing on/off constantly.
Once upon a time I wondered why they didn't have a "bid up to ____" system like ebay. It's cause they want another 3 bucks of mine every month.
Calavera May 19th 2010 6:47AM
As the people before me have said, lots of people.
I might try it out for a month just to see how it works, but not being a huge AH-addict I probably won't be renewing my subscription, even though it'd be kinda nice to work the AH a bit on the way to school/work.
Did anyone else react to them calling the service 'World of Warcraft Remote' (cutting off the 'Auction House' bit) when they talk about the subscription?
This makes me think they might add some additional features in the future.
$2.99 a month for remote AH and Guild Chat already seems a lot more tempting...
Add to that the possibilities with Real-ID, checking in on your iPhone on the train home and asking your Arena teammates / SC2 buddies if their up for a game when you get home, or telling your guild your gonna be a tad late for a raid.
I guess what I'm getting at is that if the AH bit doesn't seem tempting enough, I'm sure Blizzard will make the whole 'World of Warcraft Remote' thing juicy enough until you give in and part with your money.
Then again, I could just be misreading and seeming like a fool.
Josh May 19th 2010 7:12AM
So... They could have just charged 25 bucks for a farting butt mini-pet and made the same amount of money with much less effort.
Tridus May 19th 2010 7:41AM
People who write bots to game the AH automatically using the web interface. That's who.
Boz May 19th 2010 8:11AM
This is just a continuation of the slippery slope Blizzard started sliding down years ago. Think about all the paid services and stuff that has been slowly adding:
-Race Change
-Server Change
-Authenticator
-Mini Pets
-Mount
-Mobile AH
We'll be getting vanity shirts and tabards next, since they have "no impact on gameplay;" just watch.
Dave May 19th 2010 9:15AM
They are monetizing gold farmers.
ZMES_Matt May 19th 2010 9:16AM
@Boz
Vanity Tabards and Shirts are already in the game via the TCG; and I'm not talking the random loot cards, but the UDE points you got from every pack, so buying one of those was a straight amount of money required to rack up enough points.
tim May 19th 2010 10:23AM
"Yeah, I don't want to see the game be one that costs a hundred different small fees, but this is the exact kind of thing I think would be fun and is worth my leisure dollars."
Hmm. I too think that the Remote Auction House is a nice/fun thing that might be worth my leisure dollars. On the other hand, a bunch of nice/fun things that cost real money will lead to - guess what - a game "that costs a hundred different small fees."
I hope Blizzard knows where they're going with this and I hope it's NOT a game with hundreds of small fees.
Mitawa May 19th 2010 11:00AM
@Boz
While I'll admit I'm a "Slippery Slope" theorist and I don't really like this and some of the other things they've added, I'm just going to say this:
Authenticators are not part of the slippery slope, my friend.
Authenticators are an absolutely wonderful thing, and Blizz was even nice enough to remove the shipping cost from them. I think they'll be included with Cataclysm, and if they aren't... they REALLY should be. Please don't include authenticators. You may scare away someone who was thinking of getting one, and that would be a damned shame.
Thankyou.
Vandersveldt May 19th 2010 11:32AM
"I hope Blizzard knows where they're going with this and I hope it's NOT a game with hundreds of small fees."
Trust me Tim, Activision knows EXACTLY where they're going with this.
TR May 19th 2010 12:36PM
I'm beginning to wonder if those RMT/microtransaction "slippery slope" mongers may have been right. Whenever I see a words like "premium" and "subscription" inserted, it's usually an indication that something essential to one's enjoyment of use will eventually become part of it, i.e. features or data plans not included in the basic mobile phone plan.
Ben May 19th 2010 12:09AM
doh!