The World of Warcraft Armory has continued to receive new features since its inception. Once used simply to find gear upgrades, the Armory has become a tool that many WoW players turn to when looking for information about other players. Talent Specs, Achievements, Stats, even Professions are all there for players to scrutinize and debate over (U MAD BRAH?). Now Blizzard is planning on adding another feature as Blizzard Poster Bornakk has announced in this thread.
Blizzard plans on integrating Auction House functionality into the Armory website, as well as the Armory App for iPhone and iPod Touch. While the post implies that some features will be premium-based, it suggests that all players will have access to some level of AH functionality.
Hit the jump for the announcement.
Since the launch of the World of Warcraft Armory, we’ve been regularly releasing updates and new features designed to help players stay connected to the game even when they’re not logged in. Today, we wanted to give you a heads-up about a new service now in development that will let players access the Auction House directly through the Armory website or Armory App for iPhone or iPod touch.
While there are still plenty of details to be worked out, we’re designing the service to offer auction functionality similar to what’s available in-game. Players have been requesting — and we’ve been hoping to implement — a feature like this for a long time, and we’re excited that the Armory and the game have evolved to a point that makes it possible.
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. You may be seeing bits and pieces of the Auction House service pop up in the test builds we use for the public test realms as we go through the process of internal testing.
This new feature will allow World of Warcraft players the ability to further distance themselves from family, friends, and all other hints of a social life. Now, when you’re waiting in line at the Taco Bell drive-thru, you can check your auctions via your iPhone. In all seriousness, this will more than likely only benefit those players who wring every last scrap of gold out of the Auction House, but it does show that Blizzard is interested in bringing aspects of the game out of the game. I expect a Barrens Chat App to be announced at Blizzcon this year.
