Some back and forth during the day about the Wowhead thing. First, Wowhead and John Maffei of Affinity have comments up on Wowhead regarding the sale.
How can I believe any of this is true? I read on another site that a former employee says this is all false.
John: I would strongly caution people not to believe all the rumors they read. For example, it came to my attention that the individual who leaked the story about the Wowhead sale supposedly not only owns competitive content properties but also is the partner in a successful RMT site. Like all Internet rumors, it is just that, but please consider the source when you hear damning stuff. Why not take a free shot at your top competitor. If the rumor above is true about the source of these comments, it is of course the height of hypocrisy.
So you are sure Wowhead will not have gold ads now?
John: 100% sure. Neither Wowhead or the ZAM Network have ever had gold or powerleveling ads, and they never will. We sold IGE. We are clearly separating our business from those practices. Why would we start running gold ads now?
In response, the original blogger/ex-IGE employee noted the interview from just two days ago on CNet where Brock Pierce bemoaned the state of competing with the Chinese when running a gold arbitrage. Despite Affinity’s insistance that, you know, that this shouldn’t be a problem since, you know, they sold IGE off to the Gnomes of Zurich or Somali pirates or something.
Of course, is Pierce CEO of Affinity, as he used to be? Or did he stay with IGE? Or does Dan Terdiman, the CNet interviewer, just not know what he’s talking about? Terdiman freely admits it’s probably the latter.
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.
Or maybe Terdiman’s actually on to something after all.
#1 by Aufero on June 24th, 2007
*shrug*
I’ve done contract work for several companies that are “no longer associated” with their original parent companies for legal reasons. What that often means is that, no matter which one actually has its name on my paycheck, if I’ve contracted with company X I’d better be listening to the people from company Y (who are often the same people anyway) or I’m out of a job.
This looks like the same kind of deal.
#2 by J. on June 24th, 2007
Blizzard should have moved to buy Wowhead, to protect it from shit like this.
And if it hadn’t at least occurred to them, they were all asleep at the wheel.
#3 by kyan on June 24th, 2007
One would certainly have to assume, or at least hope as a subscriber to their service, they considered something along those lines (though they’d likely be concerned such a move would be seen as overally hostile). I suppose, akin to some other recent examples from larger developers (particularly in the console market), they simply rather invest in developing their own in-house services (and responses to outside services). In particular for this case, I wouldn’t be suprised if this development results in a resource increase for their Armory database project.
#4 by brockpierce@ige.com on June 25th, 2007
If I wanted out why would I be at the Virtual Goods Summit in the first place.
#5 by Nicademus on June 25th, 2007
B/c every time you try to get out THEY PULL YOU BACK IN!!!!
#6 by Axecleaver on June 25th, 2007
1. Make item-tracking website for WoW
2. Advertise with gaming press that your site is the best, because it’s not affiliated with RMT.
3. Sell out to the RMT companies
4. Repeat
What exactly is the barrier to entry here? Sounds like an easy million dollars to me.
#7 by ajeba on June 25th, 2007
I wonder how that conference call discussion went down?
Buyer >>
How much for your item DB site?
Seller >>
*TV Up Too Loud while listening to Austin Powers* ”
1 Million Dollars! MUAHAHAHAHA”
Buyer >>
SOLD!
Seller >>
*Muffled and unheard seller response because TV too loud*
Oh … bout 40 Bucks.