As reported by VentureBeat in a recent report, virtual goods and prepaid game cards experienced great sales on this Black Friday and Thanksgiving weekend. The overall sales of prepaid game cards were up 48% on Black Friday as compared to last year, and even 60% higher than a week before Black Friday.

Virtual goods is an emerging market for retailers and advertisers, and also another way to spin the biggest discount holiday shopping day of the year. Several companies made good business during the holiday season including PlaySpan, the seller of Ultimate Game Card prepaid online game cards. These cards can be used in over 1,000 online games at over 50,000 retail locations.

The PlaySpan marketplace experienced a steep sales hike of 56% on Black Friday as compared to last year. The overall sales were 19% higher than last year, just in the four-day holiday period.

On the other hand, the console video game market saw a reduction in business, of 8%. Still, the overall business of virtual goods in United States is much less (approx. $1.6 billion in 2010) than console game business that is currently at $20 billion.  Still the rate of growth rates are considerable. Besides, PlaySpan is also planning for ongoing development of its digital goods offerings as a result of its partnership with game developer Square Enix.

We are also watching the growth of mobile market for virtual environments as mobile gaming platforms swift on expansion.  A couple include OpenFeint and Apple. Moreover, mobile shopping tools are also influencing holiday shopping and sales, with an increase in PayPal usage during Black Friday this year.  The overall sales saw a whopping increase of 310% through mobile shopping, with 27% increase in  total payment volume.