Diablo 3's about to get a patch (2.2.0) that's going to hit the Public Test Realm soon. It'll add many things like new Legendary armour sets, a new type of Adventure Mode bounty, new Goblins to chase and much, much more besides. However, there are some things such as a new in-game currency, timed experience boosts and cosmetic items that won't be available in all parts of the world.
Blizzard posted an update on the patch that cited "Some new features may start to show up in data mined information for patch 2.2.0 that will not apply to all regions," citing five that won't apply to the Americas specifically.
- A new currency called "Platinum"
- Timed experience boosts
- New cosmetic items including wings, non-combat pets, and character portraits
- References to stash space and character slot expansions
- A new UI element that references the above information
Taking a look at these, it looks as if Blizzard might be thinking about adding microtransactions to the game for regions outside of America. Blizzard themselves seemed to confirm this by saying in the same post "We recognize that many players have expressed an interest in microtransactions being added to Diablo III. While we may explore this model in some regions, we have no immediate plans to implement such purchases anytime soon for the Americas region."
When queried, Blizzard said that "There are a lot of different factors that go into decisions like this, including various regional or local market considerations. We know that some of these features would be ones that players in several regions might enjoy, but we don't currently have plans to support these in North America, and we don't have any other region-specific details to share at this time."
Interesting decision. Do you think America might see the microtransactions implemented in the future too?