Linden Lab Pulls Minecraft-Esque Patterns from Steam

Dorito boy, we hardly knew ye. Linden Lab has pulled Pattern, its inventive, Minecraft-eseque sandbox game, from Steam:

While “extremely grateful” to the players who bought an Early Access copy of Patterns, features relying on server connections, such as world-sharing are going to be turned off and the there will be no future updates. The offline content released so far will still be playable, however. “Patterns had early promise,” the team say. “And while Linden Lab focuses our efforts on our other offerings, we are still evaluating the future of the Patterns technology.” Patterns players are angry at the sudden announcement. There’d been no updates to the game since May but there had been nothing written to suggest the team would take the money and run.

That's disappointing news, because Patterns showed a lot of potential. Even Minecraft creator Markus Persson was digging it, while a well-known developer admired the hell of it on New World Notes. But apparently it wasn't gaining enough traction/sales to justify more effort on it, besides the company's core focus:

“Recently, Linden Lab announced that we are working on an ambitious project to create the next-generation virtual world, while we continue to improve Second Life and grow Blocksworld,” the team wrote on Steam.

And as we know, they are still the shit when it comes to virtual worlds.

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Comments

[Amanda Dallin]

Wow. Your only about 6 weeks late with the news.

In other news, Senator McCain chooses Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate and Microsoft releases Windows Xp.

[joe]

Just another practice run for LL when it comes time to pull the SL plug.

Cue the foolbelievers, I mean true believers.

[Metacam Oh]

Patterns is what happens when you have a multi million dollar company trying to develop games like an indy. Patterns was another waste of my money with the Lab, but it's my own fault, I should have known better.

[Ciaran Laval]

To be fair to Linden Lab they did say in their press release : "Patterns had early promise, and while Linden Lab focuses our efforts on our other offerings, we are still evaluating the future of the Patterns technology. Interested parties are welcome to contact us with proposals."

Most of the anger I've seen about this seems to have ignored the fact that LL would listen to offers.

However a lot of people are also put off from buying Steam early release games by outcomes such as this.

[Fred]

A lot of people I showed this game to was impressed. The colors and overall feel of the game was nicer than Minecraft in my opinion, but nobody actually paid for this minecraft clone. Maybe it's a wise business move to pull the plug, a even wiser one would to have not built this in the first place - but that is of course easy to say in retrospect.

[joe]

Fred's logic would eventually be applied to "SL2" LL hopes to build. Sure, it might be impressive, but nobody will actually pay for it so maybe it's "a wise business move to pull the plug, an even wiser one would to have not built this in the first place "

It's easier to say in hindsight.

[three-hour tour]

@ joe

Hey joe builder, from opensim who is banned from hypergrid business for trolling,

look SL is making a big turn around with a great new ceo who is making SL a better place and if people are not happy they will go to SL2.0 or HiFi
so opensims days are numbered in regard to getting the crumbs from linden labs pie.

The days of being able to really bad mouth the lab are closing in and big mouths like you look even more stupid when you troll!

Ebbe is the skipper your right of the Loveboat! LOL while joe builder enjoys his cruise on the ss minnow as First Mate Gilligan, the bumbling, accident-prone crewman

[Issa Heckroth]

Everywhere Joe posts is the same semi-coherent hate filled rambling. I think its safe to just ignore him.

[joe]

It's too bad the truth bothers you so much that you would fight hard to censor it.

I only write to speak to the great people out there who like the truth, or at least an alternate view, of something.

I'm sorry if my words offend the "others".

[joe]

Actually I meant to say "regret" rather than sorry. That's the proper way to go about it for the uneducated and illiterate.

[Amanda Dallin]

@Joe
I don't see anyone trying to censor you. I see it being pointed out that you're foolish and should be ignored. You can say any nonsense you wish that doesn't mean anyone has to listen.

[Adeon Writer]

Game got better at a faster rate than minecraft, but sadly they just didn't update frquiently enough to keep people coming back each month or so, which was the secret to Mincraft's early success.