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MMO Item-Trading Corporation Buys Rival

Posted by simoniker on from the sinister-keiretsu dept.

madgeorge writes "According to a Waterthread post, MMORPG item trading businesses Yantis and IGE are now one and the same. I'm definitely in the wrong business." The specific press release mentions that "Internet Gaming Entertainment, Ltd, the worldwide leader in the market for buying and selling virtual property used in multiplayer online games, announced today that it has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets of Yantis Enterprises, Inc.", and notes: "With more than 80 employees and thousands of suppliers, IGE is the largest provider in the world of virtual currency exchange and game-enhancement services to players of MMORPGs. The company provides 24x7x365 customer service and tech support from its state of the art operations center in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong." We've previously discussed IGE and its relation to alleged 'MMORPG sweatshops'.

33 comments

  1. Big money by Silicon+Mike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's big money in this, unfortunatly. There's alot of people who think Yantis is the scum of the earth, but there are quite a few people who have claimed he's bought EQ related web sites for 5 figures, and if you read FOH (one of the better known everquest guild) message boards @ www.fohguild.org, people are claiming he's gotten over 10 million for the company. 10 million for selling virtual property is insane.

    1. Re:Big money by wizarddc · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You say selling virtual property is insane, but isn't that exactly what content producers are doing? What's the difference between selling text, audio, and motion pictures and selling some virtual currency or some loot? In the end, it's all just bits, and what makes those bits valuable is who wants to get a hold of them. Most people don't see buying movies, cd's and books as insane, only because we're used to it. And in the end, isn't this what "Intellectual Property" is? Just some virtual creation that you say you've layed stake to? How can you differentiate between the bits that make up Lord of the Rings being a solid investment and the bits that make up Enchanted Sword Of Slaying +8 being just silly? It's your oppinion that matters, but it only matters to you. And the people selling it, I guess. If no one had the opinion that it was worth paying real money for fake money, no one would be selling it.

      --
      Th
    2. Re:Big money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, but motion pictures dont' suffer from people entering the theatre, stealing the popcorn and selling it to the folks in the theater either.

      Virtual Item traders are using the content and efforts from another company to provide their own 'services'.

    3. Re:Big money by Dachannien · · Score: 1

      No, content producers are selling a service, and companies such as those mentioned above are violating the agreement for use of that service by buying/selling in-game items for RL cash.

      It also detracts from the integrity of the game as complete morons end up with uber characters that they have absolutely no idea how to play.

    4. Re:Big money by wizarddc · · Score: 1

      I wasn't responding to the fact that some MMO game companies make selling their virtual property outside of the game for cash against their terms of service. Some do, some don't, but that wasn't my issue. My original parent poster made the statement that selling this virtual property in any situation was insane. I agree on the fact that game that weren't designed to have the in game loot sold to the highest bidder should be allowed to make that against their policy, but when a game has already taken this into account and allows real world sales of virtual world property, there is nothing different between selling any kind of virtual property.

      --
      Th
    5. Re:Big money by ACPosterChild · · Score: 1

      No, it's like paying to see a movie, paying for 10 bags of popcorn, and then, while you're sitting in the theater and the movie is just starting, you offer to sell sombody a bag of popcorn for a profit. If it's worth it to them to have the popcorn and not have to miss the start of the movie, then they'll pay a premium. If they don't want to pay the premium, they can take their own time and get their own (still paying the base price of course); if they can't afford the premium, that's too bad for them (unfortunately, most avid gamers probably fall into that category).

  2. Economics by eyeball · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Would it be weird if an item trade company became so profitable that they could buy the game company itself? What a weird economic machine that would be.

    --

    _______
    2B1ASK1
    1. Re:Economics by missing000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or how about the game company itself (We are talking Sony here BTW), starts selling items itself and undercuts these people selling worthless shit.

      I think that would be more likely.

    2. Re:Economics by stoolpigeon · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It would make more sense - and lead, possibly, to some really interesting court cases.

      --
      It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    3. Re:Economics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      How long until games include an in-game "Auction House" using credit cards and paypal.

      As long as someone's working for it, and someone's getting it, I'm not all that concerned with trading.

      Mainly because of the old saying, "Have the courage to change the things we can, the tolerance to accept the things we can't, and the wisdom to tell the difference."

      Then again, I just butchered that quote..

  3. Risky by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Mr. Yantis would be well advised to keep the sale price a secret; he's wide open to a lawsuit and I'm surprised he hasn't gotten one. It's what prevented me from going heavily into the business.

    As for IGE, how hard would it be for the game companies to shut these guys out. I mean they could probably get volunteer GM posses watching for suspicious behavior. I sold on Ebay, but what these guys do is ridiculous.

    1. Re:Risky by Geccoman · · Score: 1

      Wide open for a lawsuit? On what grounds could SOE take money from him? As far as the EULA goes, pretty much the worst that could really happen to him is to get an account ban.

      Take this in front of a judge and I seriously doubt that Sony would get anywhere. If there was some legal recourse to be had by SOE, they would have sued a long time ago for some serious $$.

      --
      I'm on a chair.
    2. Re:Risky by Thrymm · · Score: 1

      If I recall correctly, when Yantis started out on Ebay and then playerauctions.com he was into law either as a lawyer or paralegal... All I do know is, this guy made a boatload of cash. I feel so meek that I made only ~$600 between selling my ranger account and some banded armor sets a few years ago! Then again, I had a social life outside EQ.

    3. Re:Risky by e_pluribus_funk · · Score: 1

      Then again, I had a social life outside EQ.

      Liar.

  4. One step closer to being mainstream? by SuperMo0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Now that companies like this are going through full-blown corporate mergers, is it just a matter of time before selling property like this to gamers becomes a viable business model?

    Or will we have to wait for a "The Sims" of MMORPGs that appeals to a very broad audience for something like this to happen?

    Or will this not happen at all...?

    I honestly believe that it will be a viable format for business sometime in the near future, but the companies that have gotten a foothold already will be making a killing later.

    1. Re:One step closer to being mainstream? by Babbster · · Score: 1
      Now that companies like this are going through full-blown corporate mergers, is it just a matter of time before selling property like this to gamers becomes a viable business model?

      It's ALREADY a viable business model. A viable business doesn't necessarily require a huge customer base. What it requires is a large enough customer base to make the venture profitable.

      For example, you can have a viable business building custom cars. While the vast majority of the car-buying public will at most look at them and never buy, there is a customer base (a tiny minority in comparison) out there consisting of people willing to pay $100,000 (or far more) per project to have a custom car.

      The simplistic version is this: If you sell your product(s) for a profit (specifically, a profit over and above your expenses, including cost of acquiring/creating the product), you have a viable business.

  5. Should it be stopped? Can it be stopped? by obeythefist · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now, I'm all for computer gaming in general, I think if people played more computer games there'd be a lot less unpleasantness in the real world.

    I used to play MUD's a long time ago, I even donated to the admins in exchange for "wishes" that increased my power in the MUD. The wish money was used for beer for the admins, paying the co-lo costs for the server, upgrades, and so on. It was a fair deal, I had fun on the MUD and these guys got rewarded for all the work they put in to the "Free as in beer" MUD.

    But the MMORPG economy phenomenon (say that three times fast) is something remarkable and a little disturbing. I can't say that these people are advancing humanity by building new bridges or painting great works of art. So these are obviously "B Ark" people (along with used car salesmen and telephone sanitisers). Shouldn't resources be allocated somewhere more useful?

    That, I realise is completely academic, despite Sony's attitude. People want to do the things they want to do, and if it doesn't hurt anyone else it's generally left alone (the exception is civil liberties in the USA, americans aren't allowed to use drugs, have privacy, etc etc).

    --
    I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
  6. They have a competitor by dr_leviathan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    gamingopenmarket.com opened recently in December. They are still small and not moving much EQ money or items, however they allow you to transfer wealth between games. Ready to cash out of the old treadmill and move to a new game? Their market pages are formatted to look like regular stock price histograms, complete with tranaction volume. The busiest market (hence the one with the most interesting plots) is for Second Life (secondlife.com).

    --
    Religion is poison to rationality, and we lose sight of that at our own peril. -- Lurker2288
    1. Re:They have a competitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      they're featured on wired.com today

      Online currency exchange article

  7. Re:Should it be stopped? Can it be stopped? by ReyTFox · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't forget that in addition to people doing the "real work" in any business or industry, there are also middlemen like distributors, retailers, etc.. You can't say that these middlemen contribute anything particularly great, but at the same time they are necessary to facilitate the well-being of the economy in lieu of, say, technology that would put them out of the picture.

    In MMORPGs, the middlemen could lose their business in the blink of an eye if the game's owners decided to provide their own system facilitating the use of real money in virtual trade. I would call it a "high-risk" business on just that standpoint alone.

    In addition, insurers probably also don't offer policies for "loss of virtual items due to crash."

  8. My God. by Pluvius · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'd never seriously advocate genocide, but when it comes to MMORPG players, it's a close thing. Especially now that people are making and taking over businesses concerning things that don't exist.

    Rob (Get away from the computer, [Clan]Gandalf)

    1. Re:My God. by Geccoman · · Score: 1

      Have you ever seen how much some of the virtual money sells for?

      It will make you even more furious. There are people out there seriously putting 2-3k on a credit card to get rich in a game.

      It's messed up man, messed up.

      --
      I'm on a chair.
    2. Re:My God. by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

      The dollar hasn't been backed by gold in ages. Dollars don't exist in the sense that you're thinking of them, except by convention.

      More accurately, they're paying lots of money to twiddle a couple of bits in a database somewhere.

      Verisign makes money doing the same thing. As do the name registrars. As do banks.

      I think the thing here that's so different is that it's amazing that people are willing to *pay* for items in a game (For chrissake, it's a game. Isn't the whole point of a game to have fun *getting* the items?)

      --
      May we never see th
    3. Re:My God. by Tofino · · Score: 1
      Isn't the whole point of a game to have fun *getting* the items?

      Yes, but in some cases getting the items simply isn't fun. Having played a lot of these games, they are mostly fun, but occasionally you get mired into some quest for an item you really, really want, and find it's going to take days of camping the same spot for hours on end. Or killing boring, easy monsters over and over trying to make some cash. Instead of doing this, many opt to buy the tedious-to-get stuff for real cash, then go in to actually PLAY the game -- the fun parts, that is.

    4. Re:My God. by Pluvius · · Score: 1

      The dollar hasn't been backed by gold in ages.

      I knew someone would trot out that old chestnut. The difference is that real money can get you things in the real world. The only thing MMORPG money can do is get you things in a video game. Even if you were able to trade game money for real money, it would still be stupid, because that would require some dumbass to give away real money for game money.

      Rob

    5. Re:My God. by jackbird · · Score: 1

      Some folks (employed adults without a lot of spare time, e.g.) might be willing to pay real money for advancement of their MMORPG character through the purchase of game money. And once there's a market for game money, then game money can get you real things in the real world.

  9. My question by MarkusQ · · Score: 4, Funny

    My question:

    Did IGE pay cash for Yantis?

    Or gold?

    Or did they give them some really hard to craft items?

    -- MarkusQ
    1. Re:My question by Geccoman · · Score: 1

      They hooked him up with a prostitute, a large pizza, and a 6-pack.

      They were AMAZED how quickly he said yes.

      --
      I'm on a chair.
  10. Like Kai's Power Tools by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

    I'm vaguely reminded of HSC, later MetaCreations -- they made and sold a plugin (KPT) to enhance a program (Photoshop and Painter). A couple of years later, they had enough money to buy the host program (Painter) from the company that produced it.

    --
    May we never see th
  11. As of yet, game money sellers game companies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So far, game companies have lost ALL of the cases against the "sell gold for cash" people. All of them. Research proves it, so do the court cases.

    (P.S. Blacksnow ended without resolution considering they had a sweatshop in tiauna or whatever and skipped the country when someone found out ;)