A team in France has just unveiled a new service that could signal the first steps in allowing gamers to sell their in game loot for cold hard cash.
Normally in game hoarding in the latest MMORPG isn’t going to net you much more than a busy screen on the day you log out but a small team of French developers has just launched a new platform that might allow players of future titles to retire from game and quite literally cash out. The newly announced Playthora is an interesting idea that allows developers to set up a secondary marketplace for virtual items with supposed ease.
Like many SaaS, Software as a Service models Playthora provides the back end technology and legal know how to trade game skins or collectables freely in supported titles. The enticing part of this type of system from a development point of view, is the ability to provide player choice, no more loot boxes or cash that’s squandered with no hope of a return one day, and undercutting the black market. Already, games like EvE and EvE Echoes have a thriving grey market in PLEX despite perfectly reasonable options to trade it for virtual cash, and the recent reveal of a FIFA FUT bot farm raid proves that the cash market is thriving.
This entire Playthora system comes after 2 years of incubation at AXA, the insurance giant, and is backed by a host of other systems to help prevent money laundering, fraud, and some of the legal complexities that come with this idea. It’s an interesting concept that opens a whole host of questions, but we’re still not sure if it’s all play to pay or pay to win quite yet. You can find out more about Laythora over on the official website.
