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[sonycowboy]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=582&e=1&u=/nm/20050420/wr_nm/media_sony_online_dc

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp (SNE.N). (6758.T) on Wednesday embraced the long-unofficial market for selling virtual video game merchandise for real currency, unveiling an online auction site where players can buy and sell characters and items in games.

Sony Online Entertainment said Station Exchange would launch in June and will initially service the market for items and characters from the game "EverQuest II."

Edward Castronova, an associate professor at Indiana University who studies video game economics, has estimated that people spend as much as $800 million a year in hard currency buying virtual items from other players to use in games.

Sony estimated its games "EverQuest" and "EverQuest II" accounted for 20 percent of those sales, which mostly take place in private transactions and on existing auction sites. For example, on Wednesday morning, players could buy 100 virtual gold "EverQuest II" pieces for $22.99 on eBay.

Items put up for auction on Station Exchange, Sony said, will be removed from the games in which they are used and put on a secure server. Sony also said it will not be selling items itself on the service.

 

[DarienA]

They are tired of seeing eBay pocket the change for all those fees.... and I won't be surprised if somewhere down the road they do start selling their own items on the site.

 

[Zelda-Bitch]

people who buy imaginary items are morons. Sony is such a turd for even promoting this behavior.

 

[Razoric]

They are tired of seeing eBay pocket the change for all those fees.... and I won't be surprised if somewhere down the road they do start selling their own items on the site.

Exactly what I was thinking. I don't know why they haven't implemented this already.

Ultima Online started it (buy a character thats basically already leveled out).

 

[Doth Togo]

You watch Blizzard and see if they do it sooner or later.

My money bets that they will go this way too.

 

[Doom_Bringer]

people who buy imaginary items are morons. Sony is such a turd for even promoting this behavior.

.

 

[Razoric]

people who buy imaginary items are morons.

or... have waaay too much money to spend.

Remember a lot of people value time over money. If they can buy a "black dragon sword of power +30 agility" for $50 bucks instead of going on a 20 hour quest, they'll do it.

 

[akascream]

It's only for specific servers. Not a bad way to deal with it imo. You will never be rid of IGE, so if you can't beat em, join em. Not only can you make IGE sign stuff to keep them off legitimate servers, but your playerbase on those servers won't be buying things.

 

[DarienA]

people who buy imaginary items are morons. Sony is such a turd for even promoting this behavior.

...

 

[brandonnn]

It's a wise move on everyone's part to realize that this isn't going to go away, however hard they try and discourage it -- as of last August, the economic impact generated by online item/money/land-deals was somewhere in between the GDP of Namibia, South Africa and Jamaica.

I'm not sure which half of that statement is more depressing.

 

[Spencerr]

I wouldn't mind if it was actually common in MMORPG's to be able to buy a high level character so you could skip the leveling and do the fun high level questing. WoW for example, it's really not that great until you're level 60 and I just don't have that kind of time.

 

[madara]

lame, lame, lame. Saddest news I seen in ages. Instead of banding together to stop these freaks they just have them okay to ruin community of these games.

 

[Azrael]

If it's limited to a few servers, and the rest of the servers are freed of losers who want to pimp out their characters with gear they didn't earn and the associated money farmers who monopolize spawns, MPK, etc., then I think it could be a good thing.

 

[madara]

It won't stay confined to the specialty servers for long. The competition with SoE will force IGE to focus on the regular servers. And I dont believe that everybody that wishes to make out of game transactions will move to the right servers. They just gave a-okay to this crap is all they done. Possible even lawsuits if there is cash value to items now.


Whats next? :

Are you sure you want to loot the Legendary Dagger of Uberness for $29.95?"

"If yes, please fill in your credit card number and expiration date in the box below"

"Pre-approved financing available!"

 

[Zelda-Bitch]

people who buy imaginary items are morons. Sony is such a turd for even promoting this behavior.

.... ... ... .

 

[golem]

Whats next? :

Are you sure you want to loot the Legendary Dagger of Uberness for $29.95?"

"If yes, please fill in your credit card number and expiration date in the box below"

"Pre-approved financing available!"

:lol :lol :lol

i wonder if these servers will turn into ninja city

 

[Borys]

WoW must be hurting them.

BADLY.

 

[golem]

http://stationexchange.station.sony.com/

lmao

 

[Teddman]

 

[brandonnn]

people who buy imaginary items are morons. Sony is such a turd for even promoting this behavior.

Not to get too wise-ass, but do you buy videogames just to play frisbee with the dvd? Ever bought a web domain? Paid for web-hosting? Paid a subscription for website content or online game? Are you on Xbox Live?

Same thing. It's a crazy world, ain't it!

 

[Bregor]

Imagine getting in a pick up group with someone who just bought a high level character.

 

[Zelda-Bitch]

Not to get too wise-ass, but do you buy videogames just to play frisbee with the dvd? Ever bought a web domain? Paid for web-hosting? Paid a subscription for website content or online game? Are you on Xbox Live?

Same thing. It's a crazy world, ain't it!

:lol

Yeah, that's totally what I meant to.
It wasn't in reference to buying imaginary game items for making your imaginary game character more "uber". <-sarcasm


Also, someone mentioned the argument of people are paying for time saved etc.. All I have to say is if your paying money to save time in a videogame (which is meant to be enjoyed), you should just quit gaming. When the focus of having fun is lost to trying to be "the most uber player that ever was", your new focus should be to get a life. IMO of course.

 

[Gattsu25]

something oddly wrong about this picture



oh...and promoting videogame item sales is fucking weak...I hope this isn't a sign that Sony as a whole will be adopting this new-fangled microtransaction bullshit

 

[sonycowboy]

WoW must be hurting them.

BADLY.

Yes. This makes sense. THe only obvious conclusion to supporting online auctions. Despite the fact that one has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

 

[Gattsu25]

Yes. This makes sense. THe only obvious conclusion to supporting online auctions. Despite the fact that one has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

I think the intent of the original argument was something along the lines of WoW is cutting into SOE's profits so much that SOE is now being forced into looking towards means of making money (however small the money made will be) that they previously condemned

 

[SickBoy]

I couldn't resist doing a little math to look into this in terms of value to EBay. Based on Sony's numbers, the revenue is nothing to sneeze at.

They've gotta be raking in AT LEAST $6 million a year if Sony's estimations are right. Add in a lowballed Paypal value and you're looking at a bare minimum of $8 million in overall revenue for EBay.

It's no wonder they've decided to embrace it...

 

[brandonnn]

Edward Castronova has been tracking revenues more academically (as linked in my earlier post, scroll to the bottom).

For those interested, Julian Dibbell has also been writing about his own experiences farming UO throughout '03-'04 (extrapolate his short-term numbers and he would have made an annual salary of $47k), and has a book forthcoming on the same subject.

Terra Nova puts it in terms we can all understand:

GDP per capita in both China and India: Below $700
Average earnings of short-order cooks: $17,000
US poverty line for a family of 4: $18,400
Average earnings of dancers: $27,000
Average earnings of drug abuse counselors: $32,000
Average earnings of firefighters: $38,000
Average earnings of museum curators: $40,000
Average earnings of secondary school teachers: $46,000
Trader Dibbell: $47,000
Average earnings of insurance salesmen: $54,000
Average earnings of computer programmers: $63,000
Average earnings of economists: $76,000
Average earnings of lawyers: $108,000