Report: 'World of Warcraft' fan site sold for $1 million

Editor's Note: This blog originally implied that Wowhead trafficked in the secondary market for World of Warcraft gold. But the company says it does not.

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 scuttlebutt about the uber company in the business of selling WoW gold, IGE, having 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's ex-parent Affinity Media.

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

Whether or not Wowhead is involved in the WoW gold business--the company says it's not--it's huge business, and it's changing with the sale of IGE, and other recent developments. 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.

And if Wowhead doesn't traffic in gold as it claims, then $1 million for a fan site is a lot of money.

More interesting, perhaps, is the fact that IGE has been sold.

When I was at the Virtual Goods Summit at Stanford yesterday, I had a talk with Brock Pierce, IGE's founder, and he didn't say anything about it. It's true, he was wearing a badge from "Affinity Media," and admittedly, I am not entirely up to speed on the latest news in this industry, but rather than suggesting IGE had been sold and Affinity was getting out of the secondary market business, he hinted he wanted to get out.

This is all very interesting, and confusing. And as I hear more, dear readers, so will you.

[play7]

WATCHOUT.Philip Linden and friends might be copying

WOW Philip Linden and friends over at Second Life might be getting excited about the possiblity of it happening to them also......Cheap SOB.

[Tikiman]

Incorrect

Half of the information in this story is incorrect. Wowhead.com does not advertise nor does it sell WoW gold, nor does the parent company anymore. Please read the information on Wowhead.com's main page about the buy and correct this article.

[epiccollision]

umm no

ige it held by a bunch or shell companies that all lead back to affinity media...get your facts straight...and you are correct wowhead does not sell anything but i don't think the article alluded to that

[devnull17]

Misinformed

This information is just wrong. Wowhead never had anything to do with selling gold, and it isn't really a "fan site," except in the strictest definition of the word. It's an item database--when a player needs to find out where a particular item drops, or where a certain quest begins, or what you need to craft a specific recipe--that's what it's for. Players install add-ons directly into WoW that harvest information about items they find, and then send the logs back to Wowhead to be integrated.

[joosfraba]

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[bachan1]

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Anybody know where the World of Warcraft European servers are located? Someone said they are all in Britain but I am not sure. Would they have some in Germany, some in Finland etc?

I am trying to do a business plan for my own massive multiplayer game and was wonder how they spread out the resources.

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=========================

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[bachan1]

hello buddy how are you dear i read your comment it's great i like it dear i learn alot of things from your comment i hope everyone likes your post dear thanx for this information.

Anybody know where the World of Warcraft European servers are located? Someone said they are all in Britain but I am not sure. Would they have some in Germany, some in Finland etc?

I am trying to do a business plan for my own massive multiplayer game and was wonder how they spread out the resources.

=========================
will smith
=========================

<a href="http://mymmoshop.com/buy/world-of-warcraft-europe/gold/index.php">WoW Europe Gold</a>-WoW Europe Gold

[bachan1]

hello buddy how are you dear i read your comment it's great i like it dear i learn alot of things from your comment i hope everyone likes your post dear thanx for this information.

Anybody know where the World of Warcraft European servers are located? Someone said they are all in Britain but I am not sure. Would they have some in Germany, some in Finland etc?

I am trying to do a business plan for my own massive multiplayer game and was wonder how they spread out the resources.

=========================
will smith
=========================

[url=http://mymmoshop.com/buy/world-of-warcraft-europe/gold/index.php]WoW Europe Gold[/url]-WoW Europe Gold

[bachan1]

hello buddy how are you dear i read your comment it's great i like it dear i learn alot of things from your comment i hope everyone likes your post dear thanx for this information.

Anybody know where the World of Warcraft European servers are located? Someone said they are all in Britain but I am not sure. Would they have some in Germany, some in Finland etc?

I am trying to do a business plan for my own massive multiplayer game and was wonder how they spread out the resources.

=========================
will smith
==============

[url="http://mymmoshop.com/buy/world-of-warcraft-europe/gold/index.php"]WoW Europe Gold[/url]-WoW Europe Gold