Man Who Made $635k In Virtual Property Making More Virtual Property

[Greg Tito]

Man Who Made $635k In Virtual Property Making More Virtual Property

Jon Jacobs sold his Club Neverdie in Entropia Universe for $635,000, and is bankrolling a new virtual world called Next Island.

Not many people thought it was a good idea when Jon Jacobs mortgaged his house and purchased virtual real estate in the Swedish-based Entropia Universe for $100,000 back in 2006. But when he built a functioning business model that brought in $64,000 annually, his purchase seemed less crazy. This year, he sold off the bulk of Club Neverdie to an Entropia user named John Foma Kalun for $335k while also selling off pieces of his asteroid to twelve others for another $300k, bringing the total proceeds to $635,000. That amount of cash is nothing to sneeze at, but he's not letting it go idle. Entrepreneur David Post recruited Jacobs to help him build a new virtual world within the Entropia Universe called Next Island [http://www.nextisland.com/about-next-island/], which has been under construction for the the last three years with technology from MindArk, the people behind Entropia. Next Island is free to play, and officially opened its doors to the public on December 10th.

Next Island's premise is that all of the rich people of the world have set up individual islands for them to enjoy, but this island has the benefit of time travel. That means we'll have places like ancient Greece, complete with columns and maybe a philosopher or ten. There will be game rules that will make Next Island feel a bit more like World of Warcraft. You will be able to collect resources, for example, and make things that can be sold for in-game currency. The difference is that the currency may be able to be converted to real-world riches, because Entropia runs a recognized banking institution based in Sweden.

It will be interesting to see whether a new virtual world will be viable in today's market. After hearing so much in the middle of this decade about how places like Second Life would spread to infect all of our lives, and then witnessing no such change, it's a little hard to swallow that red pill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redpill]. Still, Jon Jacobs has proved that he can turn a profit in these worlds, so it's at least possible that something will come of Next Island.

But I'm not counting on it.

Source: GamePolitics [http://venturebeat.com/2010/12/08/next-island-launches-its-time-travelers-virtual-world/]

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[Daystar Clarion]

What is this? I don't even...



Seriously, do these people have more money than sense?

 

[Rad Party God]

Well, if he wants to profit from an MMO, he'd better apply for a job at Blizzard. He's certainly got the talent for it.

 

[Dirty Apple]

This is a shining example of economic theory at work. The market decides what an item is worth. Our inability to understand why anyone would pay for a virtual property, is inconsequential. If there's money to be made, then it comes with a guarantee that someone will be there to make it.

 

[Eri]

I don't even understand why people spend this much money on a crappy game. I don't understand spending that much period, but much less on a game no one has ever heard of.

 

[Ruairi iliffe]

As much as you can say he was mad to do it, he still did walk away with a huge profit, and having played EU thats saying something.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

but much less on a game no one has ever heard of.

Perhaps it's played by very rich people with lots of time on their hands?

Still, impressive.

 

[newwiseman]

Wow, really that's all I can say... I mean the instant a game asks me to hand over any amount of money beyond the initial software purchase is the time I usually say good-bye, I can't fathom how that much revenue can be generated by users of a game that I've never heard of...

I speechless, but now I guess I need to go brush up on my Swedish.

 

[SiliconSurfer]

A couple of things to note: This is a virtual world AND a very fun, challenging, interesting game. In other words, there is only one 'shard' so you're in the world with people from all over the world. And, there is a context, a reason to live and play, so to speak. This world is doing very well, and it's true, no one has really heard of it, but Next Island is already growing fast and it is technically not even really fully live yet, no big announcements yet, they're to come. This game is free to play, you can download it for free, no monthly fees, etc. So you never have to put money in and there are folks who are doing very well having never put money in at all. They've played a lot, and played really smart, but it can be done. Putting in something like $15 a month would get you really far pretty fast and be a lot of fun. It's amazing, the graphics are just stunning, CryEngine2.

 

[Waarheid]

Well played. Impressive and deserved.

In such worlds, the only thing that will make you really rich/profitable is being a risk-taker. AKA having one set of stainless steel bawlz.

I applaud you.

A risk--taker, maybe.

Using inside information from your job as developer to manipulate the economy, maybe.

Neverdie is a developer and he and his employess play the game with regular avatars.

With real money involved, this seems a bit unkosher.

A thread from the company website

http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?203235-Why-is-this-allowed/page46

 

[blaza]

Isnt this the game that can turn the virtual money into real money? If its the same game im thinkng of, the dude prolly bought it for millions of in game cash and the Jon guy probably just transfered it into real money, for significintly less.Of course thats only if its the game im thinking of/