Sony Online Entertainment, the developer of massively multiplayer online games like EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, is the first major U.S. publisher to facilitate the buying and selling of virtual goods. Late Tuesday, the company unveiled Station Exchange, an auction site that allows players to spend real money on virtual weapons, armor, coins and new, high-level characters. The service isn't set to go live until the end of June, and will initially be restricted to the wildly popular EverQuest II game, which in five months has built a player base of more than 350,000. If the service is a success, similar auction services will be established for Sony's other online games, the company said. [Wired]