People Paying $200 Million a Year to Live Kim Kardashian's Virtual Life -- Just Wait Until an Oculus Rift Version Hits

An analyst estimates people are will pay $200 million a year to live Kim Kardashian's life in a mobile game, and I didn't believe that figure at first, but App Annie confirms that "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" is a top grossing game across the world, currently among the top five grossing apps in 46 countries.

What are people paying for? Stuff like this:

While the game is free to play, the goal is to get users hooked on in-app purchases such as clothing or a burst of energy needed for traipsing through Hollywood. Users can spend as much as $99.99 for 175,000 virtual dollars. A trip to Beverly Hills costs 4 game “dollars,” while 400 will buy a necklace. Kardashian’s voice guides the uninitiated through casting calls and parties, while users dodge surly tweets from rivals.

Because mobile games are relatively cheap to develop ($1-3 million is typical), a lot of that forecast $200 million is going to be pure profit for the developer and Ms. Kardashian. So expect many more virtual celebrity experiences like this in the future. Expect them to get even more immersive:

Imagine a Oculus Rift version of the Kim Kardashian game. (For of course that will come.) Imagine people around the world paying hundreds, even thousands of their dollars, to enhance their Rift-ified Kardashian avatar. Imagine them never leaving. Do not imagine me enthused by that inevitability.

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[Pussycat Catnap]

"While the game is free to play, the goal is to get users hooked on in-app purchases such as clothing or a burst of energy needed for traipsing through Hollywood."

So...

um...

...

Its basically a replacement for Second Life.

[Iris Ophelia]

^
Zingggggg.

[Iris Ophelia]

Also I'm going to assume that the horrible people you're talking about are the people whose job it is to make games meticulously (and psychologically) designed to hook and then exploit players, and not the people who have been hooked and exploited by them? Right?

[Shockwave yareach]

It's the Lohan Life game I'd rather play. Being a snobby pretty girl in Hollywood? Boring. but virtually driving drunk through filming sets and ruining movies? That sounds like fun. And you can make users pay a dollar for each virtual bottle of booze.

And ten dollars for the lawyer to get you off scotfree :)

[Maya Paris]

Need an antidote to all the Celebrity hoohaa?

“Celebrity Blow Your Tits Off”, an interactive art build on one of the LEA art sims is open all hours until the end of July.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA25/73/129/3376

Come and find out if you have Popwrecktastic potential, collect Celebrity freebies (click everywhere) and make your way to Instant Rehab.

If you want to know a bit more, the inimitable Inara Pey writes about it here

http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/of-exploding-bustlines-with-a-dollop-of-sauce/

[Hamlet Au]

(I tweaked the title to be less snarky and more VR-y.)

[Cicadetta Stillwater]

I wish I could honestly ask, "Who?" Alas, I am only left with "Why?"

@Shockwave: That would be darkly hilarious. Doesn't have to be just Lindsay Lohan, either. Call it a Former Child Star game, and go to town. XD

[Iggy]

I am holding out for Andy Kaufman's Virtual Life. I hear the wrestling simulation will be great with the Rift.

[somethinggoesherebutwhatever]

So many more interesting celebrities, like the ones who believe in wacky things or have had hair raising lifestyles. One should make one with parody names, so as to avoid lawsuits and huge endorsement deals.

Oculus rift? That game would be rather slow, right. I mean, she isn't an extreme sports fan is she? I don't know, so maybe I am wrong and it is an action game as well as management/choice sort of gam.

And,there are other VR headsets available now and the Google Cardboard is a low cost one indeed! Just cardboard cut out, some software and a mobile phone/tablet! IF we had those flexible samsungs out, and they cost $50, I bet those would be popular. Yeah, latency and lag but this would be no wild sort of game. The parody one may be though.