Virtual in-game currency marketplace Sparter has announced that it will no longer accept new purchase orders only a year after the company publicly launched its Gamer2Gamer trading platform. Sparter hopes to eventually reinvent itself by shifting its focus to providing develop and publisher-sponsored marketplaces.

Sparter's platform allowed gamers to trade virtual currency, keeping payments in escrow until bot sides approved the trasnfer. The company also provided reliability ratings based on actual transactional data and price charts showing market trends. Its supported MMOs included World of Warcraft, EVE Online, IMVU, MapleStory, and several others.

Though Sparter did not publicly explain its decision to cease operations, it's assumed that its closing was brought about by pressure from developers and publishers, seeing as most virtual worlds actively discourage, if not forbid outright, the buying, selling and trading of virtual money and goods, or any out-of-world RMT (real money transactions).

Said Sparter in a posted notice: "Going forward, we believe the best course for our business is to focus solely on providing marketplaces with the full support of game developers and publishers. To all of the members of the Sparter community, we thank you for your business and support. We continue to believe that open and efficient real-money trade of virtual goods benefits everyone in the gaming ecosystem, and we look forward to creating new solutions with our partners."