Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Buy Real Cookies With Fake Money Earned From Mobile Gaming

Buy Pretend Things with Fake Money From Your Phone
With government stimulus checks starting to hit the mail, Americans are being encouraged to go buy things. Many will do just that, taking any excuse to run to the mall to buy something extravagant, but these days many will need that money to pay a few bills down. If you're in that latter group, fear not, because a new program from Cellufun will let you go shopping at a virtual mall and buy all you like -- without spending a dime.

Cellufun offers over a dozen free games available for download to mobile phones. Most are simple, like checkers or sudoku, and most have some sort of social aspect to them, enabling gamers to play with friends. By playing certain games, particularly the casino-style ones, gamers already earn Cellupoints, a fake in-game currency, but so far they haven't been able to do much with them. There have been small pretend stores in the system for months, but the company is now formally launching the CelluMall, an in-game shopping center that will eventually be stacked with virtual wares from real companies.

Right now the mall is somewhat underwhelming, with the only "real" store being a bakery from franchise Geoff & Drew's, where you can buy cookies and the like. There are a few other non-branded stores from which you can buy virtual toys, but nothing all that exciting, so it probably won't be too hard to resist spending those hard-earned virtual bucks. But, if things go according to plan, before long there will be a raft of virtual wares to peruse and purchase, all without worrying about the budget. [Source: CelluFun]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, casual games, CasualGames, cellufun, food, online shopping, OnlineShopping, virtual goods, VirtualGoods