The Game Developers Conference in Austin had veteran game developers talking about the biggest online gaming opportunities. One major topic was the
discussion of micro transaction model versus subscription base.
However, it turned out to be fairly heated discussion on RMT. While everyone agreed that RMT got in the way by spamming other legitimate players,
Raph Koster summed it up that it was a design problem
and game operators could 'officialize' RMT to cut down the spammers.
Erik Bethke (CEO GoPets)
commented on RMT and its
future, "Blizzard should sell gold - I would buy it" and suggested, "that the future of gaming will be large virtual worlds with RMT
transactions."
There is already a growing adoption rate of the virtual asset model in the US. Nexon (MapleStory) proves that micro transactions work in the US,
citing "$1.6m virtual item sales in February, over
600,000 items. And over 1m in item sales in June."
