Holy.Shit. $2 Million in four hours – for virtual crap

Posted: April 21, 2010

I seriously do not get this buying of virtual stuff. Maybe I am old fashioned but when I pay money for something I want to be able to hold it my hands. So the idea of spending hard earned money on stuff that only exists online like stuff inside of games strikes me as really dumb.

However it seems I must be in a minority as Blizzard, the company behind World of Warcraft, recently made about $2 million from the sale of virtual livestock.

… That said, Blizzard has started to capitalize a bit on this trend, and now sells virtual pets through its online store. The latest is a “Celestial Steed,” which, for $25, allows players to “travel in style astride wings of pure elemental stardust.” In four hours, Blizzard sold approximately $2 million in virtual livestock — apparently Blizzard understands how to give their community good reasons to buy …..

Source: Techdirt

Apparently this has set off a bit of debate in the WoW community with a number of them arguing against this being able to buy your way through the game.

It’s amazing how much money you can from a bunch of virtual elemental stardust.

Category: Gaming
Tags : money, virtual goods, world of warcraft
Posted: April 21, 2010

By Steven Hodson

More Posts By Steven Hodson

Comments

2 Archived Responses to “ Holy.Shit. $2 Million in four hours – for virtual crap ”

Bob
Apr 22, 2010

Spending money on virtual items isn’t that hard to understand, you just need the proper point of reference. Consider spending money on tickets to a sporting event. Aside from the ticket stubs, you’re not getting anything you can hold in your hand — you’re getting an entertainment experience. If a ticket to the game is $25, maybe that’s worth it to you — $25 for three hours of entertainment is about $8 an hour (I’m ignoring parking and other costs). $25 for a virtual mount in a game, well, if it’s worth it to you to be able to see your character fly around on a ghostly flying whatever, then how is that money any more ill-spent than spending $25 to watch pituitary cases run around a court throwing a ball at each other? It may not be worth it to you, but it’s obviously worth it to about 80,000 people. Also keep in mind that that mount is permanent — you may get years of enjoyment out of it — versus a sporting event which only lasts a couple of hours.