Gamertell

If you ever thought that $60 was a lot of money to spend on a video game, then forget about that brand new virtual space station.

The winner of an auction for the Crystal Palace Space Station just dropped US$330,000 for his virtual piece of heaven.

Planet Calypso, created by First Planet Company, is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) where players pay for goods and services with real cash. The game world employs a currency called Project Entropia Dollars (PED) that has a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. Every $10 PED are equal to US$1 so every transaction has actual real-world value.

Erik Novak is the proud owner of the Crystal Palace Space Station, an investment he believes will bear fruit in no time.  The station, orbiting around Planet Calypso, is a big attraction for hunters in the game. Now that Novak is the owner, he gets to reap the profits of the virtual hunting resort by exchanging his virtual winnings to real US dollars.

This kind of investment has proved successful in the past. David Storey, from Australia, invested $26,500 USD on a place called Treasure Island and recovered his money in about 12 months. Later, Jon Jacobs, an American, bought the Virtual Space Resort for $100,000 and, after setting up a nightclub and some property sales, he made $50,000 in five months.

When I first heard about this I thought it was just some eccentric guy with money and time to spare but now I think it’s a valid business venture. People in the game world are going to pay for entertainment and housing so, if you can get your hands on some good real estate, then you can make a buck out of it.

It’s time to explore different investment opportunities. Maybe the next best thing is not some resort on Dubai or The Caribbean but a bunch of 0’s and 1’s in a server. 

Read [Washington Post] Also Read [TechCrunch] Site [Planet Calypso]