Just posted by Zonk at Slashdot, confirming our earlier post on eBay’s decision to halt auctions in game gold, gamer accounts and other assets from MMORPG online games:
Mr. Hani Durzy, speaking for eBay, explained that the decision to pull these items was due to the ‘legal complexities’ surrounding virtual property. “For the overall health of […]

The market for virtual add-ons to online video games is slated for substantial growth, according to a study of console and handheld online gaming by ABI Research.
The study predicts that a growing percentage of gamers’ budgets will go towards the purchase of in-game virtual assets such as “maps, game related add-ons, casual game […]

eBay has reportedly discontinued all sales of virtual items from online games, according to numerous accounts from traders. This would obviously be a significant event for the virtual economy, as eBay has historically been one of the major methods for traders to sell assets and game accounts.
UPDATE: eBay has now confirmed that it is no […]

Blizzard sold 2.4 million copies of the Burning Crusade expansion pack for World of Warcraft in North America and the EU in the first 24 hours alone, making it the fastest-selling PC game ever. At $40 a pop, that equates to $100 million in sales in one day, which is exceeded only by Microsoft’s $125 […]

GamaSutra has a question-and-answer session with Jon Radoff of GuildCafe, a new social network for MMO Gamers. Radoff, an industry veteran who co-designed the 1992 MMORPG Legends of Future Past, says his new venture represents an important evolutionary step forward in online gaming. Here’s an excerpt on Radoff’s view of the current industry climate:
“I […]

The Bush administration insists that Internet gambling violates U.S. law, to the point where last July federal agents arrested BetonSports.com CEO David Carruthers when he was changing flights at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. If it’s illegal for U.S. residents to gamble online, what’s the legal status of an online casino in Second Life? The Second Life […]

Blizzard announced this week that its blockbuster MMORPG virtual world World of Warcraftnow has more than 8 million subscribers around the world. That total includes 3.5 million players in China, 2 million in North America and 1.5 million in Europe. That’s a ton of players, and clearly represents a huge revenue stream for Blizzard.
How much […]

In the wake of Linden Labs’ widely-blogged decision to open source the code for the Second Life client (desktop) software, Steve O’Hear at ZDNet looks at a more intriguing possibility: opening the code for the Second Life server grid and allowing virtual worlds to interoperate. The concept isn’t novel, as there have been […]

Power users in Second Life are spending as much as $60 a week in the game.

Without Net neutrality, would ISPs who get no direct revenue from online gaming handle MMO and FPS (game server) traffic in a fashion that would degrade latency?