DigiWorldz has bought VirTec this week and will resume normal business in two weeks when the vending machines will be running on DigiWorldz servers and be deployed to other grids.
This comes after VirTec’s previous owner Virtouse Lilienthal announced last week that he would stop selling new products to new grids and that he was talking to someone willing to take the business forward. Several grid owners had expressed worries about losing the system.
VirTec vending machines allow merchants to sell goods using their choice of currency, and also provide sales statistics and other functionality over and beyond the built-in sale function available in OpenSim.
DigiWorldz intends to run the business as a separate brand, DigiWorldz Grid owner Terry Ford told Hypergrid Business.
“We intend to place Virtec stores on any grid who wants them,” he said. “We also hope to continue offering the products via the Kitely Market.”
VirTec had withdrawn products from its shops in Kitely and other grids including Great Canadian Grid, Genesis MetaVerse, Dynamic Worldz, DigiWorldz, Mobius Grid, ZanGrid and 3rd Life Grid.
DigiWorldz, a former VirTec customer, will also be providing support to current VirTec customers, who can file support requests through the standard DigiWorldz support tickets.
DigiWorldz will also continue reporting VirTec statistics, although it could take some time before things start running normally, said Ford.
The new move will boost trust for VirTec products, ZanGrid owner Suzan Koning-Moennink told Hypergrid Business.
“This is positive news to all VirTec its members,” she said. “I have no idea how this will work out in the future, we have to wait and see.”
One possible issue is that DigiWorldz only allows grid residents to submit support ticket and will need to expand the system to include those without an account at DigiWorldz, said Koning-Moennink.
The system now allows anyone to submit the ticket, with or without signing up as a member.
ZanGrid hosts shopping mall regions where users from other grids can teleport in and use Gloebits to buy products that they can take home. It was one of the first big commercial deployments of the Gloebit currency, which offers OpenSim users a single virtual wallet that they can use for shopping on different grids.
Mobius Grid, which had also purchased VirTec machines, will continue using them under the new ownership, grid founder Shawn Corr told Hypergrid Business.
Mobius is also a Gloebit grid, and was one of the first to join the platform last summer.
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