Level 12 Profits: World of Warcraft Fan Site Sells for a Million Bucks

by jordan | June 23, 2007 at 12:14 pm | 264 views | add comment

Everybody knows that war is big business, but that seems to be a truism even when the war (and the world in which it takes place) isn't real.

There's a lot of buzz in the World of Warcraft fan site universe this morning, with reports and rumors flying about fan sites being sold, about $1 million sale prices and even that the uber company in the business of selling WoW gold, IGE, has been sold.

According to a report from the blog, TechSoapBox, the WoW site Wowhead has been sold for $1 million.

Another blog, meanwhile, claims that, in fact, Wowhead was purchased by IGE parent Affinity Media.

Getting away for a second from the complexities of what it all means in the gold business, that's a pretty impressive number if it's true.

Of course, WoW gold is a huge business. I don't know any exact numbers--nor does anyone else since the buying and selling of WoW virtual assets, and those of most online games, is prohibited by the games' publishers. But by some estimates, the so-called secondary market for these virtual assets (of all online games) is approaching $1 billion a year.

So, in that regard, $1 million for a site that traffics in these virtual assets may not be very much money at all.

The buying and selling of virtual-world assets in the real world ("meatspace", as it is sometimes referred to) is nothing new, with legislation making the rounds to tax some of this trade.