A man in China took his friend to court for selling a game character he spent US$1.4 million on for just US$552.
The man filed a proceeding against his friend and NetEase after the friend mistakenly sold off the character from the MMORPG Justice Online for just 3,888 yuan (US$552). The defendant said he was trying to sell the character back to his friend for 388,000 yuan (US$55,138), as he had been given the character to play. He attributed the typo to being dizzy from excessive gaming at the time.
But the moment the character was seen on NetEase’s in-game marketplace, it was snatched up by another buyer.
The case was ultimately settled with the mediation of a judge online. NetEase revoked the transaction, and the plaintiff paid the buyer 90,000 yuan (US$12,789) in damages. After the settlement, the local court in Sichuan posted on social media that the case was a great example of the protection of digital assets, and it warned gamers not to spend too much in video games.