Online game gets banking license

Surely a sign of things to come – the BBC has reported that Swedish-based MMO, Entropia Universe, has been granted an official banking license.

The license means that it can offer full banking services to customers including interest earning accounts and getting salaries paid directly into their in-game account (in Project Entropia Dollars). Gamers deposits are also insured up to $60,000 each. With virtual economies growing more impressive all the time (Entropia alone generated $420m in player transactions last year), they are becoming ‘virtual states’ in more ways than one.

Given the health of the traditional banking system, switching to “Bank Entropia” might be an alternative worth further investigation. However, the BBC didn’t report whether Mindark, the creators of the game, now plan to pay themselves huge bonuses, borrow billions secured by high-risk bundled debt and then demand the Swedish government bail them out when it all goes wrong….