For a number of years, the PC/Mac version of Path of Exile has used a trade system where players can search for items on a trade website, and then contact those users in-game to arrange a trade. The console version of Path of Exile has used a different system, called the Trade Market. This post details our plans to bring the Trade Site to console players and eventually phase out the Trade Market.

The context for these changes is that of unification. It would be great to see both the console and PC version have the same choice of either mouse/keyboard or game controller. It would be great for them to get the same patches, on the same day, and potentially have cross-play, cross-progression and cross-purchases. All of these are difficult issues that require significant engineering work, platform support and various other factors, so we're not able to promise any of them at this stage. But it's a future we'd love to work towards, and one that requires that Path of Exile is the same on both platforms.

In order for it to be the same, it has to have the same featureset. We have gradually been adding support for the remaining features (guilds were added to console, controller support to PC, lockstep on console is next). But one big difference between the two versions is the way that trade is handled. This will need to be unified as well.

On the console version, the Trade Market tries to make it difficult to find items, but easy to actually purchase them. You have to browse through pages of items in a specific category, a bit like a flea market. When you find something you actually want, you can make an offer that can be asynchronously accepted by the other player.

On the PC version, searching for items on the powerful trade website is extremely easy. Actually trading for the item can be frustrating though, as it's up to you to contact the user in game and complete the trade.

Both of these systems have an element of friction, but this is intentional. We actively want to avoid trade being too fast and easy. For more information, please read our Trade Manifesto. While it may feel obvious to suggest that we combine the two systems so that it's both instant to find items and instant to receive them, we strongly feel this is not the right approach for the long-term health of the game.

We have decided to enable the Trade Site for Path of Exile on console. This does require a web browser to visit, and while the player doesn't necessarily have a computer nearby, they do have access to the console's built-in browser or their mobile devices.

But there's one complexity. Currently, users have to copy/paste a trade message from the website into the game client. This is moderately easy on PC, but would be extremely difficult on console or the website. So we are adding a Direct Whisper button which will detect your current logged-in game session and automatically send the whisper directly from your account to the recipient. This functionality will also apply to the PC version of the trade site.

So either at or a little while after Lake of Kalandra's release, we'll be enabling the trade site for console users. We won't turn off the existing Trade Market just yet (as the trade site for console will essentially be a beta that we want feedback on), but we do plan to replace the Trade Market with this system in the near future.

We believe this feature will both make trade easier for console players overall and will work towards the goal of having Path of Exile be identical regardless of which platform you're playing on. The Direct Whisper button will hopefully also be a nice convenience for players playing any version of the game.

This is what receiving a Direct Whisper from the trade site will look like for both PC and Console. The item itself will be linked as part of the message. You can still copy and paste the trade message, shown in the second message in the screenshot below.