IGE
Encyclopedia
IGE was one of the largest services company buying and selling virtual currencies and accounts for MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

. During its peak time, it had offices in Los Angeles, China (Shanghai), and headquarters & customer service centre in Hong Kong. IGE was one of the main monopoly in virtual economy
Virtual economy
A virtual economy is an emergent economy existing in a virtual persistent world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an Internet game...

 services, also known in the MMORPG industry as 'secondary market'. Members of the gaming community were often critical of IGE, as its services 'may' allow players to break rules in online games. After its reformation in 2007 by Jonathan Yantis, IGE remains one of the top leading virtual currency providers as of today.

IGE was founded in 2001 by Brock Pierce
Brock Pierce
Brock Pierce , is an entrepreneur best known for pioneering the market for virtual goods in online games. He has founded or co-founded seven companies, acquired more than thirty companies, and closed a dozen corporate finance transactions securing more than $200 million of funding on behalf of his...

, a former child movie star, and Alan Debonneville. They met each other while playing Everquest and decided to form IGE. Pierce was the main inverstor in the company while Debonneville was managing the operations. Brock Pierce was also the co-founder of the controversial failed dot-com
Dot-com company
A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...

 Digital Entertainment Network (DEN)
Digital Entertainment Network
Digital Entertainment Network was a multimedia and web television dot-com company.-Founding:Rector hired traditional media executives from Broadcast TV, Film, Commercials, Documentary and Cable to create a destination website featuring serialized "6 minute shows" on the internet.Launched in 1996,...

. Media reports claim that Marc Collins-Rector
Marc Collins-Rector
Marc John Collins-Rector is an American businessman best known for founding Digital Entertainment Network, an online streaming video broadcaster and a notable dot-com failure.- Early life :...

 is a silent partner in IGE. IGE initially used an address in the city of Marbella
Marbella
Marbella is a town in Andalusia, Spain. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, in the province of Málaga, beneath the La Concha mountain. In 2000 the city had 98,823 inhabitants, in 2004, 116,234, in 2010 approximately 135,000....

, Spain, where Collins-Rector and Pierce shared a villa until it was raided by Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

 in 2002.

In January 2004, IGE acquired its major competitor, Yantis Enterprises, who was then run by another controversial secondary market figure, Jonathan Yantis for $2.4 million and 37% share of the company. The collaboration didn't last for long and Yantis later sold his shares back to IGE in exchange for 22 monthly payments of $1 million due to conflicts and disagreement.

IGE's parent company, RPG Holdings, purchased Allakhazam.com in November 2005, as announced in May 2006. Allakhazam is a popular MMORPG community site for a wide variety of games that IGE's services cater for; however, the site continues to pride itself on not supporting the trade of virtual currencies in the real economy, typically breaking and/or removing any links to sites (including IGE) that perform such trades. This marks the further expansion of this company's presence in online gaming communities. This purchase followed that of ThottBot.com
Thottbot
Thottbot is an unofficial World of Warcraft plug-in and database website. The plug-in, which is programmed in Lua, collects information while a person is playing the game— it records statistics such as the drop rates of items, locations of specific mobs, and quest information — users...

. As for today the site has had a significant drop of users but still remains popular with some MMORPG games.

Red flags started to raise during late 2006 to 2007 for IGE in all areas. One of the founders Alan Debonneville was forced out of the company. There were a lot of tension and conflicts with Pierce and Debonneville, as well as within the board. Later on, Debonneville sued Pierce for various reasons related to an investment made by Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...

 a year earlier, which Debonneville ended winning in a settlement.

IGE tried to restructure its upper management team by recruiting new executives which lead to poor management, increasing overheads and inappropriate investments. Moreover, after a great deal of controversy and opposition from MMO companies, IGE began to lose revenue due to the frequent deletion of accounts involved in trading. In 2007, a lawsuit was filed against IGE by Antonio Hernandez for "substantially impairing and diminishing [player's] collective enjoyment of the game."

During the final months of IGE leading to its reformation, the board of directors decided to sell the company to their once partner Jonathan Yantis. IGE's parent company was then titled as Atlas Technology Group Inc, which is owned by Yantis, while Brock went with Affinity Media. During this time, the remaining employees with IGE in their customer service centre in Hong Kong was asked to choose which company they wanted to join with. At the end, however, all of the employees were dismissed. Through the announcement of the new company, IGE escaped the unpaid debts (more than $500,000) of their Chinese suppliers. The main staffs in Shanghai office fired IGE's premises, which has then lost its leading role in Chinese virtual economy
Virtual economy
A virtual economy is an emergent economy existing in a virtual persistent world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an Internet game...

 marketing.

Affinity Media was said to be one of the parent company of IGE, though the company no longer has any ownership stake. Affinity Media's senior vice president of business development John Maffei, noted that "we’re no longer in that business." Affinity retains control of Allakhazam.com, Thottbot.com, and has since purchased Wowhead
Wowhead
Wowhead is a search database for the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft . The site first started out as a talent calculator. It was in beta from April 4 to June 25, 2006, and the database was released on June 26, 2006...

.com.

Like for all the other in-game currency traders, IGE's vast majority of revenue comes from buying/selling World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...

 gold. Its website traffic, and allegedly its revenues, have been declining since 2006 due to the increased competition from the in-game currency traders based in China, and the constant bombardment of anti-real-money trading measures by Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and currently owned by French company Activision Blizzard...

, the publisher of World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...

.

Games available

  • Age of Conan (US): No longer sell in-game currency for this title.
  • Aion Online (US/EU): No longer sell in-game currency for this title.
  • DC Universe Online
    DC Universe Online
    DC Universe Online or DCUO is an MMORPG by Sony Online Entertainment – Austin. Jim Lee serves as the game's Executive Creative Director, along with Carlos D'Anda, JJ Kirby, Oliver Nome, Eddie Nuñez, Livio Ramondelli, and Michael Lopez...

     (PC)
    : This game is available for in-game purchases.
  • Everquest II
    EverQuest II
    EverQuest II is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment , based on EverQuest, and shipped on 8 November 2004...

    : No longer sell in-game currency for this title.
  • Final Fantasy XI
    Final Fantasy XI
    , also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, is a MMORPG developed and published by Square as part of the Final Fantasy series. It was released in Japan on Sony's PlayStation 2 on May 16, 2002, and was released for Microsoft's Windows-based personal computers in November 2002...

    : No longer sell in-game currency for this title.
  • Final Fantasy XIV
    Final Fantasy XIV
    , also known as Final Fantasy XIV Online, is the fourteenth installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in September 2010 for Microsoft Windows, with a PlayStation 3 port in development. The game is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and is developed and published by...

    : This game is available for in-game purchases.
  • Lineage 2: No longer sell in-game currency for this title.
  • Rift (video game) (US/EU): This game is available for in-game purchases.
  • Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
    Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
    Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a high fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by Sigil Games Online, and now developed and run by Sony Online Entertainment. Originally, the game was co-published by Sony Online Entertainment , and the company producing it, Sigil Games...

    : No longer sell in-game currency for this title.
  • World of Warcraft
    World of Warcraft
    World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...

    (US/EU): WOW Gold is still available;
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