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Comment by gus_massa

4 days ago

For accounting it's better to give things an expiring date. Perhaps 5 year would have been better than 1 to keep people happy, but I don't know why they decided 1 year (or whatever is the exact number).

6 comments

gus_massa

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jemiluv8  4 days ago

I suppose I can understand for accounting purposes to some extent. Once a purchase is done, they receive their cash immediately but perhaps actual revenue is deferred until actual usage since that will end up leading to the "actual" rendering of service by openai. Makes accounting sense.

Even though it gives me the vibes of something the fictional " Sirius Cybernetics Corporation", would do.

ManlyBread  2 days ago

This is a complete nonsense given I have video games with virtual currencies in them that I've purchased for real money and the currency is still sitting there well over a decade later.

  • gus_massa  2 days ago

    I'm not accountant, but I read that explanation a lot of time.

    I guess in the game, you already bought the fake-gold-coins and you can "enjoy" having them even before exchanging them for fake-bread or fake-swords or fake-whatever.

    • shoo  2 days ago

      I'm not an accountant either, that also makes sense.

      If instead the exchange had been of real world money for N months of prepaid subscription, that was consumed after N months had passed, that'd be a little different but also presumably quite acceptable to accountants.

      Suppose the exchange had been of real world money for N months of prepaid subscription credits that could be stored indefinitely and only consumed if the player chose to actively play during a month. That might turn into an accounting nightmare if those subscription credits didn't expire (maybe cannot recognise the revenue while they are unused, becomes liability on the balance sheet).

      I wonder how the accounting rules work for stuff like Eve online where there is an game consumable item (PLEX) that when consumed extends your subscription, can be traded inside the game's economy, and can be purchased with real world money

    • ManlyBread  1 day ago

      That also makes no sense given I can add real money to Steam and Steam will never "expire" that money either.