RSSSony to Auction Virtual Gaming Goods
By Ed Oswald | Published April 20, 2005, 12:53 PM
While online auctions for actual physical items are more commonly known to most people thanks to eBay, an underground auction community is emerging that trades virtual goods -- or computerized possessions -- for use in various multiplayer online games.
Now Sony is joining the virtual trend with Station Exchange, which was announced on Wednesday. The auction site will initially serve the Everquest II community.
"The unsanctioned secondary market for online games is rapidly growing and more and more of our players are taking part in it," said John Smedley, Presodent of Sony Online Entertainment.
Sony claims that these underground auction sites that are not sanctioned by the company are risky since there is no way of ensuring the goods are transferred to the player. When a player uses Station Exchange to auction off an item, it is taken out of the game world and into the auction servers. Upon completion and payment, the player receives the item in his account.
Although it may seem crazy to the outsider, this secondary market is estimated to be worth some $100 to $800 million a year, with Sony's Everquest titles comprising 20 percent of that number.
Smedley says the new service, a first in the industry, will set the standard for online game sales. "SOE is in a unique position to help guide the industry, just as we have since we first opened the world of EverQuest to the public six years ago."
It's good in a way to make sure players don't get ripped off by someone takeing thier money and running
They need to put an addiction hotline number up as well have you seen how much money people are willing to pay for some of these items i like my games but if i buy an item in a game for hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars it's time for help.lol
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|So instead of fighting these unsactioned ones they're giving the whole world the opportunity to "buy" a better character without having to do anything to get it. A great idea from a business perspective, but a little unfair for the economy of the game itself.
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|All is fair in business.
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|The game economy in mmorpgs is forever ****ed, the chinese are going to play on US servers 24/7 now to make their living by selling virtual goods to the casual gamer.
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|One could make a decent living off of this here in the US. Actually, I believe there are serval folks out there already doing such...without the help of Sony.
Now that it's 'Legit', it'll expand. I can honestly envision real companies forming to market, trade, and manage 'virtual' stockpiles.
Seriously, start a company with a loan from the bank, buy out the market on a certain product, sell it for an outrageous profit, make a fortune... wash, rinse, and repeat.
Hmmm...
Time to call the bank.
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|I think you missed the point. Gamers pay to play their favorite game, not to work in a virtual stock markets.
With that said I will never work for Sony.
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