Last year the BBC reported that a gamer bought an island in the online world of Project Entropia for $26,500us. Three weeks ago a space station in Project Entropia reportedly sold for $100,000us. And while the press and online gaming gliterati marveled, one question sat unasked and unanswered. Was this all real?

A poster on the Battlefrontforum I frequent provided the answer. Some good Googling from him produced a link showing that Jon Jacobs, the purported purchaser of said space station, is in fact the US Spokesperson for Project Entropia. His role in working on Project Entropia includes:

US strategic relations as well as, business development, marketing and content acquisition

Apparently there were some questions raised on the Project Entropia forum about the whole deal, but very little sensible debate was entered in to, with fanboys shouting down most serious comment. At worst the fans concluded that the circumstances of the sale were a little dodgy.

More curiously, the item itself was sold when the servers were down (the items get sold only when the station is up usually) and one poster comments others were ‘disappointed’ not to have had a chance to bid due to the server status. What’s more, $100,000? A nicely round, eye-catching, newsworthy number if you ask me…

Furthermore, you would think a company so flush with rich customers wouldn’t have to scratch for cash, yet Mind Ark, the developers seem to be doing just that with the Google Ads they have at the bottom of every forum post. Frankly, I smell a rat. A cunning rat, but a fish non the less.