PlayerLands is a new plug-in that allows server owners to run in-game stores

A new plug-in has been developed that will pave the way for independent server owners to run in-game stores. PlayerLands has been created by Alex Booth to allow people to sell various content on their own servers. He and fellow founder Nick Gillett have offered some insight into what the plug-in offers, and what that could mean for the future.

Alex: “I’m not a coder, more of an analyst but what we started out with here is a plug-in, one which is very easy to install on a game server. It lets server owners make player-friendly shops in their games. They can sell items, subscriptions, DLC, put sales on, offer discounts and essentially run a commercial enterprise from that server. It also offers them industry standard reporting on all those activities.”

Nick: “We’re building PlayerLands to be a fully functional ecosystem for developers, publishers and server owners. It’s not just about technology though, we want to build a connected community, where success stories are shared and businesses are grown alongside one another on the platform. PlayerLands is a plug-in that lets server owners monetise their games, whether they’re bedroom coders, small businesses or a global enterprise. But more than that, it will also allow vendors to find and hire influencers through mutual connections and market their games to new players.”

Whilst the concept is in it’s infancy right now, there are high hopes for its application and what this could mean moving forward. The team have already secured funding of £200k from Mercia Technologies – a British venture capital company – and the idea has also been announced as a finalist in the Rising Star category for Tech Nation, which recognises promising tech startups.

With games like Team Fortress 2, Ark and Minecraft firmly in their sights, we might be hearing a whole lot more about PlayerLands in 2019, watch this space.