It’s a different experience playing Path of Exile on console or on your desktop for a variety of reasons. This is not something that the developers at Grinding Gear actually like; they’d prefer to have full crossplay and parity between the various versions. One step to making that happen is to address the difference between trading across the different versions. The desktop versions use a trading site that makes it easy for players to search but hard to locate and set up a trade with the seller; the console versions use the Trade Market, where it’s hard to find what you want but easy to buy when you do. So as a part of bringing the versions closer together, the trading site is coming to consoles.
The introduction of the trading site will not immediately mean the removal of the Trade Market, since the site on console versions is still in a testing stage and will no doubt have some issues. But that is part of the ultimate plan as the two versions are brought closer to parity, so console players can look forward to using the trade site just like dektop players do. Player reactions are a mixed bag right now, as some console players are concerned about trade bots and trade lag, though others see it as a ‘buff’ that brings the first whispers of crossplay for the MMOARPG.Both of these systems have an element of friction, but this is intentional. We actively want to avoid trade being too fast and easy. […] 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.
