eBay bans auctions of virtual goods
Published January 30th, 2007
eBay bans auctions of virtual goods
By proactively delisting auctions for property from virtual worlds and online games, eBay may be effectively forcing players who participate in such trades into the hands of giant third-party operations that buy and sell virtual goods.
Given that a significant slice of the multi-hundred-million-dollar business took place on eBay until now, the move portends a significant shift in who controls the market for virtual goods.
eBay confirmed its decision to ban auctions for the characters, currency, weapons, attire and accounts of online games such as World of Warcraft, City of Heroes and others. The move was first reported on Slashdot.
The ban does not affect the virtual world Second Life.
In most cases, publishers of online games include in their terms of service a prohibition on so-called real-money trades (RMTs), in which people buy and sell online games’ virtual assets for real money. Players who violate such rules can be banned.
But because eBay has dominated the auction market for RMTs, there’s little question that the short-term winner in this latest circumstance will be sites like the Internet Gaming Entertainment of the world, which control the third-party market.
While there is no universally agreed-upon value for the RMT market, it is assumed to be worth somewhere between $250 million and $880 million a year, according to experts.
For its part, eBay said its decision–which is essentially a move to begin enforcing rules against virtual-item trades already under way–stems from a desire to protect users.
“Any policy decision we make…has to do with…basically a good buyer experience and good seller experience on the site,” said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy. “We want people to continue to come back, and we want people to have good user experiences on the site.”
Source: News.com
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