Here we go. The floodgates to the virtual market have just opened as Terra Nova informs readers that Sony’s virtual goods exchange service has commenced operations. Read the news, view some screenshots, and keep track of the comments here.
Additionally, I have to admit that after having spent the better part of a year recently on an indy game project which fell apart primarily due to lack of a worthwhile marketing plan, I realized that content was increasingly becoming the real prize. Consequently I’m glad I went back to content creation (I do still enjoy coding, but would like to make time for porting and building upon my old aerospace analysis work… someday). I think the recent turn of events bodes well for those of us making real-world quality models.
Over the past three of four years of hanging out on indy game forums and seeing so many projects wither on the vine due to lack of compelling content (and the free stuff online just doesn’t cut it), it’s hard to not reach the conclusion that a virtual market has some potentially nice ripple effects. I’m looking for one ripple in particular. If it makes waves, I think alot of people will be pretty happy.