Virtual Goods News

Sulka Haro, Lead Concept Designer of Habbo, blogged yesterday that the world was getting a dual currency system. Habbo [in case anyone else hadn't noticed, the "Hotel" has been officially dropped] has long made money selling its virtual goods for Credits, which can be purchased with real money. According to recent figures, that's bringing in about $17.5 million/month. Now users will be able to earn Pixels for free.

"Credits are bought and used to purchase persistent value, and you can earn Pixels by doing Achievements and just hanging around online," explained Haro.  "We're piloting the change in UK, and if it's working fine, the other countries will get it at some point in the future (as usual)."

Haro notes that he can't share more, though he will be giving a postmortem at GDC, but there is more info online. Users earn Pixels by logging in once per day, spending more time online, playing games, guiding other users, and proceeding through activities called Acheivements, which range from quest-like functions to tutorials like editing your motto.

Interestingly, while users can use Pixels to defray costs of other virtual goods that they purchase with Credits, there are some temporary items, Special Effects and Rentals, only available through Pixels.

"These are items which can only be purchased with Pixels and which create an effect on your Habbo or in your guest room," explains the FAQ. "These items have to be activated to see the effect. Once they are activated they will last a certain amount of time before disappearing. The life clock of these items keeps ticking even