Why is Linden Lab Likely Spending Over $20 Million to Develop Project Sansar?

Last week when I blogged Linden Lab's latest and pretty impressive Project Sansar demo, I mentioned there was something in it that CEO Ebbe Linden said that made my jaw drop. And here it is, starting at around 9:25 (video below):

We've been working about two and a half years, it's a very large investment. Thankfully Second Life is kicking off a lot of money for us so we can make this massive investment. We have over 75 people in R&D building this platform to make it possible for all of you to create and share and socialize [in] VR.

Emphasis mine, because it bears emphasizing. Here's some basic, common sense assumptions:

• The average developer salary is about $100,000 a year
• Most/all of these 75 developers have been working on Sansar full-time
• Most/all of these 75 developers have been working on Sansar for least the last 2 years
• Most/all of these 75 developers will be on staff until at least Sansar launches at the end of this year

Do the basic math, and it means Linden Lab will easily spend close to $20 million developing Project Sansar before it even launches, just in developer salaries alone. That's definitely a "massive" investment as Ebbe says, and it actually seems like way more staff than is necessary, if Sansar is just a multi-user 3D creation platform.

Second Life, by comparison, was launched with about a dozen core developers, and for that matter, Minecraft reached the market with basically just Markus Persson and a handful of developers creating it. Even taking into account creating integration with VR and mobile devices, 75 sure still seems like a hell of a lot of developers. My guess is a lot of them are creating initial content and experiences, and as much integration with SL as possible. At least that's my hope -- Sansar needs to launch out the gate seriously strong to compete in the VR market now. Also, if Sansar doesn't quickly gain traction, many in Second Life's dedicated user base are sure to ask out loud why that $20 million wasn't spent on improving their own world.

By the way, I asked Linden Lab if the last two assumptions are correct, and will update if they reply.

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Comments

[Clara Seller]

I think that projects require a lot of people to fill in every technical crack when that project lacks any passion for exploration beyond someone's good idea for making money. Ebbe is the leader and he isn't working for peanuts and probably isn't pulling all-nighters because this project is just so cool that he can't stop playing with it. It all trickles down from that point.

Of course, I'm biased, because I've been looking at it as someone who is jealous that this energy wasn't put into SL. From that vantage point, Sansar feels like a heartless and soulless quest to take my investment and throw it on a roulette table.

[Eddi Haskell]

I think the answer is economic. Linden Lab is spending on Sansar to help recoup existing investments made on Virtual Worlds and Virtual Reality Technology with a new application. Second Life is at least 14 year old technology -- ancient in the world of IT. Sansar will help position Linden Lab, either in its entirety, or as a spin-off, as an acquisition target for Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google, or another concern. Second Life by itself is of interest to no one. Sansar makes things much more interesting.

[Cathartes Aura]

IMO the board members of LL never liked or appreciated what their money created.

SL was just supposed to be something they threw money at and if it was successful great. if not then a tax write off. But it sure looks like they only had a vague idea of what was possible and what they were funding.

The creatives came out and bam! Virtual Penii. Virtual Vaginas. Oh myyyyyy!!! ;)

Now instead of something they could sell off to someone else or IPO themselves, they had something they were ashamed to be associated with. They looked on SL as a negative. A resume/portfolio stain... ;)

What to do... What to do... Hey, why don't we rig SL economically and milk as much as we can from "Average Joe Resident" to fund something we can spin off/sell to someone else or IPO eventually - Sansar, hiding as much as possible any association with SL in the process. ;)

The VC's can finally salvage something out of their investment in LL. Something they can be proud of instead of something they despised. And the creatives in SL. They hated them with a red hot passion. Because of them and their non-G rated ways, SL became radioactive to Wall Street. A running joke...

Instead of thinking big... The board always thought small. They seemed to be looking for a major to take SL off their hands almost from the get go instead of turning SL/LL into a major themselves. At one point f#$ebook was f#$kbook and that "original sin" didn't stop it. Sex is all over f$%kbook and no one cares.

Why do they care that sex exists in SL? IMO it's because the board/VC's were ashamed of SL and it's residents. They thought of us as the "weirds"... The "freaks"... Not exactly what they had in mind - they wanted a g-rated world only and we gave them something very different.

They never defended us to the Wall Street freaks, who by the way are as freaky deaky as you can get sexually and otherwise! LMAO! ;)

How could SL have ever been a mass market success? It was being torpedoed and not defended competently by the idiots that owned it.

And now we have Sansar... Shakes head slowly... Software to create new "experiences"? A world composed of "experiences"? Hmmmmm. Begins to use my good ole buzzard noggin...

I think what people loved about SL prior to fall 2006 and minecraft, etc is the ability to create/build in-world. To make your own experiences. To make 3D art yourself. Not just be limited to only seeing what so-called "professional" experience creators produce.

That is boring. That is dull... Not something I want to be a part of. Hence the major flaw in Sansar. Why do I want to go there and spend money on so-called "professional" experiences? I'd rather be somewhere that actually appreciates me as a customer and encourages me to make my own "experiences". ;)

And the good ole Turkey Buzzard goes hiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssss! ;)

[Pussycat Catnap]

Unlike most of their competitors Linden Lab is actually flush with its own cash and in a profitable situation.

So it CAN spend that, and does not have to worry as much about being suddenly sunk by devaluation on VC market. A lot of the other VR companies will sink very fast after they launch. Some of them will succeed, but most will sink. Linden Lab can ride the storm a little better than most (obvious exceptions being Facebook, Google, and players on that level)

I don't think Linden Lab is positioning itself to be acquired. It has no need for that - its already making its investors a lot of cash.

What it does have is a need to keep water coming out of the faucet.

They're pumping in $20+ million (average developer salary is well above 100K. Starting salary is 90k. Sure QA and offshore engineers are cheaper... but I still suspect the 20 million is very low. Higher level devs will need 200k+ or they'll be working at your competitor's offices next week)...

Well, they're doing that because they CAN, and because they want to be sure they have a good enough product at launch that they will not be the first VR company to fall.

Unlike their smaller competition, LL could actually survive the VR hype-crash, because SL may be old, but it makes money.

Obviously that would not be a good survival... but it would be a survival.

But if they can 'hold out' in VR until the smaller companies crash, and the bigger companies find a new shiny... they will own it.

- I think that's where they're hoping to head.

[cyberserenity]

Checking Altspace VR and High fidelity last days. Probably the worlds Sansar will compete with. Together there are about 20 people online.

Second life contain gigabytes of content and thousands of people. Why not take a few developers to fix the VR viewer for SL insteed?

[Iggy]

Cathartes nails it:

"I think what people loved about SL prior to fall 2006 and minecraft, etc is the ability to create/build in-world. To make your own experiences. To make 3D art yourself. Not just be limited to only seeing what so-called "professional" experience creators produce."

That was the original SL vision. We call could build and share. Laggy? Old game engine? Yes and yes. And I loved it.

Now we'll have a lag-free and shiny playground for those who wear the scuba mask and have a high-end desktop gamer's rig. I am pretty certain the playground will not have many children playing.

And not a one building. SL may use 14 year old tech, but I often drive a pickup made in 1968. Works fine and is a delight to me. My desk fan from GE was made in the 1950s. Looks and works great for its purpose. I have repaired and modded both myself. My farm tractor was built in 1950. I rebuilt and restored the thing, engine included, myself a year ago. That was why I liked SL: it was one big makerspace before Mesh and the need for pro-level tools I do not want to take the time to learn. I'd rather learn to tune a carb or rebuild the front end of a classic car, now.

LL has been adrift since the Hype-cloud burned off. They fired some of their best, others left, and they keep swapping CEOs.

Sansar is the Hail-Mary pass. Of a lead football, in my grumpy opinion.

[sirhc deSantis]

Small point - how many of those 75 were moved over from SL side dev work? Wouldn't exactly count as 'new' expense. (After all, 'everyone' knows theres 1 and a half part timers running the grid these days don't they... =^^= )

Nope, 20 mil over a couple of years doesn't sound all that outrageous at all. WonderBoy Luckey raised 2.5 for his thingy remember. There's gold in them that hills, somewhere.

[DrFran]

Unless I am not remembering correctly, the original vision for Sansar was to create a virtual world free of the deeply buried bugs and old-time programming quirks of Second Life. It was not until virtual reality started to become a "thing" that LL latched onto this vision for Sansar.
High Fidelity was created with "scuba masks" in mind. The vision has been clear and direct from the start.
The gaming industry--quickly becoming larger than Hollywood--has done a great job with content and VR integration. The virtual world field remains open to competitors.
Personally, I welcome it all, but for the time being, I work and play in High Fidelity. While it is still formative, it has a vision for VR that I applaud.

[Nobody]

@ DrFran

Do you approve of the discrimination against the deaf,blind & physically disabled that high fidelity promotes an almost eugenics attitude towards those who might of signed up?.
even LL knew it was not good business practices deliberately excluding people with physical/or mental challenges but allowed it to be something that could be offered as an improvement/healthy activity choice for those with impairments, a very valid argument towards those who claimed it was just a game,the therapeutic values it has offered.

PR should be ashamed of himself taking the position he has, he would have won over more people had he championed new tools and uses of VR for those of us confined in wheelchairs, instead suggesting we are a burden on society by excluding us with no plans to create solutions.
if he wanted to be remembered as a pioneer of VR,history will judge him not by how great high fidelity became or money it made but by how he treated his most vulnerable residents.

[zz bottom]

I dont mind LL having a well succeeded product to sell to the masses, as long as , we, the so called weird niche, will keep having our Sl to play with.

[DrFran]

@nobody. I am not in favor of excluding anyone, but PR usually says he is not against any kind of support, but it will be user-created.
HiFi is supplying the platform, and the users create domains as they wish.

I know several alphas who have chat enabled in their domains, and more stuff is on the way.

The only standard there is in HiFi is no standard. You want it? You make it. Sounds wonderful to me.

[SC]

LL is going the way of Blizzard Entertainment and it will either end up being a thorn in their side, or the end of them.

Like Blizz, LL have become so obsessed with themselves and petty greed, that they're failing to see the obvious: FIX what you've already created FIRST, then look at fart-arsing around with useless crap no one in their right mind is interested in.