Man spends 50k on virtual space station in Project Entropia

By Ellie Gibson Published 25 October, 2005

In order to rent it out.

A US gamer has snapped up a virtual space station in online RPG Project Entropia for the - ahem - bargain price of $100,000 (just over £56,000).

Described as a "pleasure paradise", the space station is located in the Paradise V Asteroid Belt and the price tag includes mining and hunting taxation rights, a mall shopping booth, market stall owner deeds, a land management system, advertising billboards, and the right to name the space station whatever the owner chooses.

The owner in question being Jon Jacobs, otherwise known as Neverdie - one of the game's best-known characters.

More than 236,000 players are registered with Project Entropia, which lets players swap real money for Project Entropia Dollars. The exchange rate stands at ten PEDs to one US dollar and although many items are up for auction at any one time, they generally go for a lot less than 50 grand.

The space station isn't the first PE location to sell for a significant amount of cash, however - in 2004, one player bought an island for $26,500 (£13,700).

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Razz #1 6 years ago

    *cough*

  • Razz #2 6 years ago

    *Achooooo!*

  • RabidMonkey #3 6 years ago

    You really should get that seen to my man.

  • statix101 #4 6 years ago

    What a Prick.....does anything more need to be said?.

  • symmetry #5 6 years ago

    /does google image search for "Project Entropia"

    Meh, could be worse I suppose.

  • Xerx3s #6 6 years ago

    More money than brains imo. But then again, hes IS a yank :)

  • kangarootoo #7 6 years ago

    " What a Prick.....does anything more need to be said?"

    Yeah thats it, he's clearly a money making fool. I bet he is jealous of us.

  • Venatio Verified Expo Community & Gaming Manager, Eurogamer Network #8 6 years ago

    Isn't he British?

    http://www.imdb.c om/name/nm0414481/
    Edited by 1 at 25/10/05 @ 17:56

  • Kostabi #9 6 years ago

    It's a little extreme but if that's how he enjoys his money, go him.

  • thegamesthething #10 6 years ago

    the bloke who bought the island in 2004 (think he was an aussie?) expected to double his money, by selling hunting rights and rental of plots on his land, just as with a RL business - i'd be interested to know if he did or not

    if so, and you can make money without all the hassle of actually producing anything, sounds quite bright to me

  • Artemis_Matsas #11 6 years ago

    Gaaaaah... Duuuuuuh...

    Well... i have the following for sale: The Acropolis, Golden Gate Bridge, The Great Pyramid, and a copy of Daikatana for sale...

    anyone interested??????

  • Ginger #12 6 years ago

    Will the pyramid be emptied, or can I claim all the junk inside?

  • Kami #13 6 years ago

    The Acropolis eh?

    Hmm... interesting, tell me more...

  • thegamesthething #14 6 years ago

    youd buy something off someone who bought Daikatana?

  • kflarsen #15 6 years ago

    Yep, the World has officially gone mad.

  • captain-future #16 6 years ago

    and now he will exploit it by selling tickets to men in space suit who will travel?

  • Ninjamagic #17 6 years ago

    The world is upside down in Turmoil.

    Starving children dying in Niger and Darfur

    Kids having legs and arms amputated in Kashmir - Pakistan - South Asia Earthquake.

    Old men and women having no Tents or housing, living high in the himalayas - the highest place in the world - with the onset of winter

    New orleans covered in drain sludge and unhabitable for long periods of time

    Cancun battered by 150MPH winds and total destruction of infrastructure in the city

    Civilians being slaughtered in Iraq - Chechnya by the bucketfull

    And then you get this idiot buying a place that does not exist in reality for 50,000quid or whatever

    *shakes head*

    /wishes we could go back to caveman days, we were better then

    Ugh Ugh

  • Freek #18 6 years ago

    No software exists outside of a computer, doesn't mean you can't make money with it. The MMORPG genre is big buiseness, not surprised other people want to try and get a piece of the pie.

  • Artemis_Matsas #19 6 years ago

    @ thegamesthething

    crap... you got me :p

  • Krun #20 6 years ago

    What is money worth?

    Money only has value because we all agree that it does. Essentually it is worthless.

    This just proves it.

    If he makes more money from this I find doubtful. I played a beta of the game and it really wasnt very good. oneday they will close this game down and what happens to his virtual spacestaion then?

  • Psi #21 6 years ago

    my brain is hurting! ow! ow! owwww!!

    that more money than most british or american people will earn in a few years, and as ninjamagic said enough to change the lives of many people for the better! more money than some poor people will ever earn in their lives!

    i know an mmo a certain amount of item lust goes on but this is far too extream!

  • Dop #22 6 years ago

    A fool and his money are soon parted.

    It may be an old adage, but it's true!

  • kangarootoo #23 6 years ago

    Seems to me that half the time that people use the term "more money than sense", they are talking about someone who started off with the same amount of sense as the rest of us, but then got overtaken by their money.

    If this guy has £56k to spend on this sort of thing then I would guess (barring inheritance or royalty) that somewhere along the lines he had enough sense to make quite a large amount of cash.

  • Fatfish #24 6 years ago

    This is a bit philosophical for EG isn't it?!

    I guess there's an argument for both. On the one hand, he does have the right to spend the money how he wishes - but I agree that there are potentially more beneficial ways of using it. In essence, this guy has just bought a couple of thousand lines of program and little else. Sure, he may have an elaborate business plan behind it all to recoup his moolah and then some, but it seems to me that it's a bit of a risky form of enterprise. All small businesses these day (which, let's face it £56,000 is a small business in effect) are a risk - but this seems even more so. He's relying on a very small (in comparison to a normal high street retailer for instance) and specialised customer base - which with the advent of a newer or more interesting virtual environment to explore, will rapidly dwindle except for maybe the few hardcore fans. Let's put it this way, I wouldn't buy that for a dollar........and definately not $100,000 - no matter how much money I had!

    I agree with Kanga about the 'more money than sense' thing, but unfortunately in life making money doesn't always rely on good sense. I'm not talking about royalties or inheritence - it could just be a case of the right time and the right place. Or one good idea that's netted him a fortune. That doesn't necessarily require good sense though!

  • thegamesthething #25 6 years ago

    @ninjamagic - you think he should be doing something more charitable with his cash, how much time and money have you spent on gaming in the last year? even if its only £100 and 100 hours (and its possibly many multiples of that) , imagine what good you could have done instead

    'lots' of money is entirely relative - the cost of a games console funds a child in some parts of the world for a year, we are all responsible for our own selfishness

    /shakes head at hypocrisy

  • trevd72 #26 6 years ago

    kangarootoo - is right. who here has the means to raise this kinda off money off the bat. This guy has obviously loads of dosh and is just spending it. Rather than hoarding it away.

    Look at footballers. People complain they get paid a shit load for nothing but this money has its way of diffusing through the system by means of the managers, minders, shops, the car dealerships, the restaurants, nightclubs, employees etc.

    Its economics! I imagine he is having fun too.

  • Stickman #27 6 years ago

    It's no different from someone investing 50K in their own business idea. About 2/3rds of new business' go tits up in their first year. Maybe every small entreprenuer should just not bother and give the money to charity?

  • Fatfish #28 6 years ago

    @thegamesthething - agreed, there's is an element of hypocracy here, but I think ninja has a point (to a degree). 'Lots' of money is relative, but if someone has enough spare cash to afford to buy a £56,000 piece of virtual real estate, than I think we can safely say he has 'lots' of money in the generally accepted meaning! And it's one thing for those of us who work 9-5, monday to friday to spend a little of our hard earned cash on the things that keep us entertained, sane and make it all seem worthwhile, but to be able to spend £56,000 on effectively a collectable item in a game, is a little ludicrous however you look at it.

    And to be fair, there are several 'unknowns' in this equation - firstly, we don't know if this guy already donates several thousands of pounds to charity every year anyway or spends 3 months a year working in the Sudan to build schools and water wells. So, we can't really slate him too much Ninjamagic without having all the facts. And likewise to thegamesthething, you don't know how much (if any) time or money Ninjamagic puts in to charitable work. So let's not go tarring people with the hypocracy brush or using the 'could have spent it some much more wisely' line until we know all the facts.
    (for those who have read this already - I've removed this last section because upon reading it through a second time, I sounded more like a self righteous tw@t than I orginally thought I did - at least I'm honest!)

    Here endeth todays sermon.
    /steps off pulpit/

    Edited by 3 at 26/10/05 @ 10:55

  • kangarootoo #29 6 years ago

    Nice one.

  • jiveguy #30 6 years ago

    What happens if these lads running the game suddenly shut up shop and go away? I would be very wary of spending large amounts of money on an MMOG (it breaks my heart right now just to pay subs). You can say its analogous to the risk involved in owning a car or investing in property, but for these you have a lot of real world protections in the law, insurance and your own caution in ensuring nothing goes wrong. When it comes to a MMOG you have a lengthy T&C that "is subject to change without notice" and companies that reserve the right to "terminate accounts without warning".

    When did games become so serious? :(
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/05 @ 11:19

  • TurdBreaker #31 6 years ago

    So...am I.. am I s'posed to draw the penis?

  • Fatfish #32 6 years ago

    Anyone enlighten me as to Turdbreakers comment? Sorry, it's lost on me?!?!?!?

  • kangarootoo #33 6 years ago

    @jiveguy

    Good question. As people are giving real cash for game currency, there may be some return of funds clause in the license agreement. That said, if they go out of business I guess you would just have to join the claimant queue behind the banks and capital investors.

  • Psi #34 6 years ago

    FatFish its a quote from family guy.

    Peter Griffin: I tried finding my talent like you said. First, I tried art.
    [flashback]
    Peter Griffin: Am I... am I supposed to draw the penis?
    Peter Griffin: Then I tried sculpting.
    [flashback]
    Peter Griffin: Am I... am I supposed to sculpt the penis?
    Peter Griffin: Then I tried music.
    [flashback]
    Peter Griffin: Am I... am I supposed to conduct with my penis?
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/05 @ 14:03

  • Fatfish #35 6 years ago

    Ahh, thanks Psi...........still lost on me though. I guess I need to understand the context to appreciate it. Either that or I'm just dumb.
    Edited by 1 at 26/10/05 @ 14:07