Correction: Faketown Closes Due to Bankruptcy; Technology Up for Auction

If you go to Faketown now, you'll be prompted for a user name and password. That's for the site itself, not the virtual world. The virtual world has been forced into bankruptcy due to a lack of funding, explained Bart Yeary, co-founder and chief creative officer of Identity Play, the company behind Faketown. According to a long-time user, the site first went down for maintenance for several weeks during June and returned an error message in July before finally going behind a password prompt now.

When the virtual world launched in 2006, though, Faketown was prompted Mashable to ask if it was the the next Habbo Hotel and was called "ambitious" by GigaOM.

Just over a year ago, we spoke to Yeary and CEO Michelle Ogata about a carbon reductions campaign in Faketown produced through a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, though the partnership was done on a pro bono basis to help the WWF. . The partnership brought in revenue for Faketown, but ran  "on a small budget." At the time, Yeary and Ogata said Faketown was drawing 35,000 unique users per month. That's already more robust than some new virtual worlds, but the two had plans to increase advertising for the virtual world to grow its population.

Regardless, the increasingly crowded youth market--the majority of Faketown's users were teens--and challenges of monetization--Faketown sold sold "fake coins" to users and advertising to brands--has led some to speculate that there's not as much room for non-brand-based virtual worlds. Yeary, though, believes there are still opportunities, even for Faketown.

"The site and underlying technology are currently on auction to the highest bidder," said Yeary via email. "We still believe in the product and we are optimistic that someone will see the value in re-establishing the community."

Interested parties can view a video walkthrough of Faketown or contact the trustee, Timothy J. Yoo of Robinson, Diamant & Wolkowitz, APC, for more information.

We'll be following up with Yeary tomorrow for more the full story and his take. Check back later for more information.

Corrected: I originally reported that the World Wildlife Fund partnership was revenue generating. It was done on a pro bono basis.

Comments

[Matt]

Much thanks, Joey for finding out!

[Simon Newstead]

Thanks for this..

Don't know much about the site apart from the walkthrough video, but curious to understand what caused it to not take off.

Anyone who used it can share any insight?

[Jamiya]

hey thank you so much for lettin us know y faketown was dwn because everytime i wanted 2 get on the password thingy came up so thank you again

[Ravynn]

I had an addiction about faketown and now i just cant believe that so many people were lying to me , the all said there would be a new faketown sit and everything , i cant believe this , where & what site is it on auction ?

[Gortan]

I cant fucking beleive that! Thats unfair!
People paid alot of money to be FC on that!

[Burt]

To answer the first comment, I did play FakeTown. Infact, I was a MOD on it for a while. Some of you may remember me. Anyway, FakeTown didn't really bring in a lot of users not only because of the lack of advertising, but also because there wasn't enough to do as some people say. Some people would get bored of just chatting with other people, and they would leave. The 35,000 unique visitors a month was most likely correct, but not even close to half of them actually stayed on FakeTown. In fact, the majority of the monthly visitors were people making extra accounts to gain extra Fake Coins.

Anyway, I am making a forum dedicated to FakeTown and I invite you all to sign up. I do warn you though, it is still a work in progress, and all the forums should be up soon.

[HaleyMonster]

I paid ALOT of money for coins!! THIS IS SO UNFAIR!!!!!!

[Freshman1_Wifey]

wtf.omg
i remember
i used to go on that.

i used to be friends wit GORTAN
omg....and i was freshman1 gf...
man!!!!!
I MISS THE DAYS

[madddd]

man i spent 300 doller on that site for coins then got my credit card tooken away for dat sight man this site used me fo money good

[Flatus]

Well, I was one of the Guides on there for some time till it closed down & well-known too.

[smokethis]

i miss fake town so much,hello to all the people who remember me :)

[Matt Gonzales]

man that sucks

[coolguy1]

Hello, this is coolguy1 i used to play this game all the time i just wanted to know how much money you need to re open faketown?

[coolguy1]

ha/y are u closeing it coolgirl23

[Tasha_rules]

wooww..I used to play Faketown too.It was the most greatest game i have ever played.Back then i was annoyed by people who wanted to get in my new shop the "Adopt-A-Kiddie" shop.i know some people must have heard of it.Yes so i stopped playing for about a month.And then when i wanted to be back on Faketown, it closed down.....Stupid bankruptcy....can blame on it though......SOB!!!

[unknown]

Wow. Faketown was an amazing site. I miss it all summer I wanted to go onto it and talk 2 my friends but I couldnt so I really hope there gonna reopen it, well someone buy it anyways but when someone does I hope its still the same to where you dont have to pay for everything.

[Compaq120]

Some of you may remeber me, My name was compaq120 i was friends with amber and brittany ;l. I miss it soooo bad.Its sad that it shuted down.

[freshman1_Wifey]

i wonder if faketown will ever come back.

[Jaide2fly]

man i miss my faketown shiznit that game was better than all of those virtual games that sucks! i was so addicted lol

iwas Jaide2fly

[Burt]

Faketown's currency was the main issue. Although FaceCoins (FC) were purchaseable with real world money, every minute you would gain another FakeCoin. The minutely salary would increase depending on the privilages you had. If you were a member, you would get 3 FakeCoins a minute. People, including myself, would leave their PCs on 24/7 with their accounts logged on to gain FakeCoins, thus, eliminating the need to purchase them. What would have helped is the feature that would log the user out of the site after a certain amount inactivity. However, this was not the case, and FakeTown did not make enough money to keep the site running.