Motley Fool has an interesting, if flawed, story about the growing business of selling virtual weapons to massively multiplayer online game players. While the topic has been written about to death, this particular article looks at the whole issue from a strictly financial point of view.

What does this mean for investors?

The market for virtual in-game merchandise is still in its nascent stages, but if the early returns from companies like Nexon are any indication, this market will provide tremendous opportunities for online gaming companies to pad already-fat profit margins. Industry giants will be watching intently to see how Yulgang fares. Add that revenue potential to the explosive worldwide sales growth and growing streams of online advertising and marketing relationships, and this is a industry ripe to take off.

The article does mistakenly state that Sony explicitly bans the sale of virtual goods, when in fact the company runs a fairly profitable side-business in the stuff, but otherwise the story is worth a read.

Selling Swords in Cyberspace [Motley Fool]