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May 30, 2005
Virtual Currency
For several years now, a secondary market to the popular MMORPG genre involving the sale and trade of in-game virtual items and currency has generated some $200 million in sales, according to a PC Magazine article not yet available online. I have to admit patronizing companies like IGE from time to time to get over minor obsacles. Looks like Sony has had enough with its release of its Station Exchange, effectively giving control of most of their games' real money markets while at the same time giving them a cut of the profits. In my opinion, this is long overdue. After playing Final Fantasy XI for some time, I found it rather easy to us the in-game economy of eight-year-olds to generate large quantities of "gil" I was able to turn around to IGE, generating enough real money eventually to pay for my game subscription for a short time. I managed to do this without making it my number one gaming priority, too, contrary to what the warehouses of kids in Chinese virtual gaming companies do. In countries where the minimum wage is less than a dollar an hour, it's easy to see how a business could based on such an activity. There are several articles written on just how big this secondary market is becomming.
Interesting Articles
The Wild Ones
The Best Way to Protect Sales of Virtual Goods Can Be Found Inside the Game, Itself
IGE President on the Emerging Secondary Market for MMOs
Posted by Richard at May 30, 2005 12:14 PM
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