I think it's hard to find an objective measure, given that there are so many franchise fans that solid sales are basically a given - I wouldn't expect to see the consequences play out until D4.
That said, the fact that they rebuilt the absolute core gameplay loop - loot collection - to incorporate a real-money auction house, and had to roll it back, speaks volumes. Business-people do not abandon a monetization strategy unless it's proving to be costly in unintended ways.
The "consequences" were the sales of the $40 Reaper of Souls expansion to Diablo 3; if players were so put off by the core gameplay loop, even the removal of the RMAH wouldn't bring them back.
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I think it's hard to find an objective measure, given that there are so many franchise fans that solid sales are basically a given - I wouldn't expect to see the consequences play out until D4.
That said, the fact that they rebuilt the absolute core gameplay loop - loot collection - to incorporate a real-money auction house, and had to roll it back, speaks volumes. Business-people do not abandon a monetization strategy unless it's proving to be costly in unintended ways.
The "consequences" were the sales of the $40 Reaper of Souls expansion to Diablo 3; if players were so put off by the core gameplay loop, even the removal of the RMAH wouldn't bring them back.
RoS sold pretty well. (2.7m in first week: https://web.archive.org/web/20140530093934/http://www.euroga...)
And D3 had 6.3m in its first week.
But since RoS is an expansion, rather than a sequel, it's fair to ask whether that's apples to oranges. I don't actually know.