Entropia Universe Player Sells Piece of Real Estate for $635,000

Are you an MMO player? Does anyone ever tell you that should… oh, I dunno… get a job? Well, if you are someone known as Jon Jacobs, a devout Entropia Universe player, you could tell those people that your MMO is your job. Best of all, you might just be making a lot more money then they’ll ever hope to. Sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it?

Well, it’s true. Entropia Universe is one of the most popular MMO titles out there, and also one of the largest that deals with real-world currency for in-game goods. And when we’re talking real-world currency, we’re talking a lot of it. In 2005, Mr. Jacobs bought an in-game asteroid for a cool $100,000, and as I understand it, people pay money to do things with it, such as mine. In that regard, it’s a good investment.

That’s so much the case, that after selling off his assets in the asteroid, known as “Club Neverdie”, Jacobs pocketed an unbelievable $635,000… that’s a 535% ROI for those not willing to do the math. Many people believe that anyone who sinks real money into a virtual game is an idiot, and I’m of no solid opinion. What is clear, though, is that Mr. Jacobs saw an opportunity and certainly seized it.

What is a bit sad, though, is that this is just a virtual game, which means that all of these investments will some day mean little… and only remain as nothing more than a memory and some screenshots.

And we’re not talking about Monopoly money here. Launched by Swedish developer MindArk in 2003, Entropia Universe features a real-world, fixed-rate currency exchange that works just like chips at a casino: players trade real cash for in-game funds called PEDs (Project Entropia Dollars), which can at any point be redeemed back for real, spendable cash — minus a transaction fee, of course.