Linden Lab CEO Hints at Alpha Launch of "Second Life 2" This Summer (UPDATED)

UPDATE, 2:15pm: In Comments, Linden spokesman Pete Linden disputes the CEO was hinting at Second Life land discounts in this speech, though the full context is ambivalent. Read the discussion here.

UPDATE 2; 11:20pm: Several trusty readers confirmed Ebbe wasn't talking about Second Life in the below quote, so I've struck it and changed the title accordingly.

Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg spoke to several hundred educators who use Second Life, dropped a number of hints about future policy shifts, and Second Life's successor, and young Daniel Voyager was there furiously taking notes. Assuming they're accurate, the top news items are this: Linden Lab will discount Second Life land fees soon, andSecond Life's successor will Alpha launch this Summer.

Here's the salient quotes for that first item, regarding Second Life:

“Yes we want land to be cheaper... and we don’t want a model where content disappears. The cost of land will come down, but sales tax will go up.”

In other words, land tier will go down, while commissions on SL Marketplace sales and other transactions will go up.

As for Linden Lab's "Next Generation Platform", which is the official name for what SLers have been informally calling SL 2, here's key points around the launch: First phase is this Summer, it's completely compatible with Oculus Rift, it will allow some kind of interoperability with Second Life, and it'll be open to anyone 13 and up:

“We want to support mobile from the beginning... Any content in the new platform will be good on Oculus and PC.” “At the beginning, the platform will be revealed to Alpha users this Summer who know Maya. After Summer we will invite more people as it gets easier to use... When the platform is more generally available it will support many tools including Blender." “We are over a year before general availability... It could be years before you decide to use this new thing instead of SL... You should be able to go back and forth between platforms." "We decided the other day to have the next gen platform to be [age] 13+.”

I hope the emphasis on 3D building platforms doesn't mean the end of prim-based building, because, dude, Minecraft. Also, the fact that it's aimed at young teens means, as I've suggested before, no porn in SL 2 (sorry, Next Generation Platform), or at least, even stricter controls on extreme content.

Anyway, be sure to check on all of Mr. Voyager's notes here.

Please share this post:

Tweet

 

Comments

[Pete Linden]

I think that particular comment about pricing was actually in relation to the next-generation platform we're working on. For more along those lines, you may want to check out Inara Pey's transcription of Ebbe's comments about the next-gen platform, here: https://modemworld.wordpress.com/2015/03/19/vwbpe-2015-ebbe-altberg-lls-next-generation-platform/

[Wagner James Au]

Thanks, Pete; though looking at the full context, it still seems like he's referring to Second Life *and* SL 2. Are you saying Ebbe's statement is NOT about SL land prices?

"[06:46 / 38:05] And then monetisation – the way we [Linden Lab] monetise. I’d say our business model is a little be strange in Second Life today. We charge you a lot for land, and then we charge you almost nothing for all of the transactions that happen in-world. So, I’ve said this before, but generally we think about how do we lower our property taxes by a lot and at the same time, we’ll have to raise sales taxes to make some of the difference."

[Pete Linden]

In that portion, Ebbe was speaking about some of the ways in which we're thinking about next platform differently than SL, including discovery, scalability, accessibility, quality, ease of use, as well as monetization (which is addressed at 6:46 in Inara's recording).

Earlier in the talk, when addressing concerns we've heard from educators about SL pricing stability, Ebbe did speak more directly SL land costs for educators, which you can find at 11:56 in the official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR_CBsP5nr0

[A.J.]

I was introduced to SL through a RL non-profit that left when the famous tier increase happened. They had a $30,000 SL budget so it wasn't just the cost. It was a reason to re-evaluate and an easy decision to cut the loss. I know for that organization, the SL ship has sailed and sank. There would have to be a huge user base in place to ever get a director to sign off on that again.

I know from the non-profit experience and my own personal sim-owning experience, LL never made any meaningful attempt to reach out to get lost business back. It's really an odd way to run a business when you have an expensive product at $300.00 a month. It's like a car payment. Isn't worth some kind of boo or kiss it?

So it's cute to watch the show as the blogger's drool and race to be the first to deliver the latest promises and dreams of Paradise 2.

I'm sitting here wondering if the new platform is going to support customer service any better than the last one. Or are they going to continue to treat loyal paying customers like they are worthless?

[Wagner James Au]

Pete, just to get an official reply, are you saying there are no plans to lower SL land costs and raise SL transaction costs?

[Sweet]

i have heard ebbe say this about the new platform not the old platform

[Ciaran Laval]

I was at the event, the server ate my notes alas so I'm working from memory but Ebbe said something along the lines of it being very difficult to change the tier/commission structure for Second Life, the new world will deliver services in a different manner.

He also said that LL are not calling the nextgen platform Second Life 2.0, they do have a secret codename but they won't tell anyone, although we may be able to kidnap Draxtor Despres for info on that!

The initial alpha users will be handpicked, they are looking for people who use Maya and it will be optimised for VR and PC initially.

On changing the age Ebbe said that legally there's really very little difference between a world that allows 13+ and one that allows 16+.

[Issa Heckroth]

Agree with other commenters. The issue of making this cheaper applied to the NEXT GEN. NOT SL.

[Iggy]

Though our campus EDU-ship sailed on to other technologies after we closed our island, namely mobile doo-dads, I'm impressed that a Linden CEO decided to come talk to the educators.

That speaks well of Ebbe.

Ironically, I was on Skype today, talking to RL educators gathering in Tampa about my five-year venture in SL. We pondered what would make a virtual world work for collaborative building projects that involved students.

Answer? Not Maya or Blender, but something akin to Minecraft for in-world,real-time collaboration. I expect many at VWBPE to be starry-eyed now about the potential for SL 2. I'm not: if you cannot get ordinary students outside of engineering and design to build collaboratively and in-world, a VW loses a lot of appeal pedagogically.

As clunky as they were, prims and their sculptie offspring offered that.

[Issa Heckroth]

@Iggy - Look at what microsoft have been doing with virtual building. I would expect something like that.

Peeople are decrying the loss of prims in favor of mesh. But a prim IS mesh. There is NOTHING stopping LL making much more powerful in-world building tools than we have presently.

I expect the reason they are asking for "maya" people first is that they want the first content on the platform to look professional, and not stuck together with duplo blocks by a hyperactive kid with OCD, which is how most of the SL grid looks. I agree that no in-world build tools would be a MAJOR negative point against the new platform, but they have not said that. People are just assuming.

[Frans]

I was in the audience and can confirm that Ebbe was talking about the next generation platform when he made that comment.

[green eggs & ham]

OMG..For petes sake hamlet!, that had to be the best april fools day article ever!

"Linden Lab CEO Hints at Second Life Land Discounts,"

Even with them bringing in twice as much profits with blocks world then second life. they need the residents starving with price fatigue when this new showboat rows in to get everyone on board.

[joe]

Of course Ebbe "The Skipper" says SL2 will treat educators better. Then once they've been sucked in, "BOOM", pull the rug from under them when the cash is needed to fund some other junk project.

Most 'real' educators know a company supports education when they put their money where their mouth is. Can anyone name one instance where SL made a substantial funding commitment to education? And don't include the LEA farce please.

Dr. Dude

[Frans]

Ebbe's keynote is on youtube, for those interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR_CBsP5nr0&feature=youtu.be

[shardh]

Hope SL 2.0 has more powerful and easier to use in-world tools.
Meshes are nice but are complex and takes lot of skill.
Complexity can hinder creativity.
Minecraft tools are simple, creations can be butt ugly, but look at the creativity and engagement it has unleashed.
I think, many a time, simple is better, limited choice is better.
I can easily judge and appreciate a well built prim creation but not necessarily a mesh creation - tools are different, criteria are different

[zz bottom]

SL has a future, is called Open sim and now is being lead by Kitely.
Still it will take a long time to see that future happening as well to see Sl closing.
As the new platform goes, it is obvious that it will not be aimed at the same target then Sl or Open sim.

[EI Consulting]

Wagner James Au Journalism Sucks >

Au censors again and violates Journalist Code of Ethics http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Hamlet supports a scam confidence trick, instead of Seeking Truth and Reporting It

----

Well he allowed it here meanwhile
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2015/03/ebbe-altberg-linden-lab-second-life-2.html#more