- VR headset sales for the 2018 holiday season will be disappointing, below 10% growth for Q42018 compared to Q4 2017, with total Oculus/Vive sales in the six figures. Prepare for another round of "Is the VR hype truly over?" articles, though probably not by me (because why beat a dead virtual horse)?
- VR-centric social VR worlds Sansar and High Fidelity will continue to see peak daily concurrency levels in the two-three figures.
- As a result of the above, there will be a major corporate shift by Linden Lab, possibly a change in executive leadership, or a high profile content partnership or even sell-off of Sansar.
- Fortnite will deploy some kind of real money trading or monetization system for user-generated builds.
What are yours, reader? I will highlight the best 2019 predictions having to do with VR, AR, AI, social VR, virtual worlds including (but not exclusively) Second Life, Fortnite, Sansar, High Fidelity, and beyond. (Pro-tip: The more specific and easier to verify, the better!) Post in Comments below, and enjoy a few more holiday/NYE-themed virtual world images after the break:
Linden Lab will introduce its latest trend-chasing CEO named Blockchain Linden and he will turn the Linden dollar into a cryptocurrency, destroying the virtual economy in the process.
Posted by: A Cynic | Tuesday, January 01, 2019 at 02:40 AM
They should work on a new platform based off the same source VRChat uses, the last CEO was smart enough to diversify.
Current CEO has basically let VRChat take Second Life's market growth share with new residents becoming noticeably depleted.
Ebbe has spent way too much time in his Ivory Tower! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAeDUYRmmPI
Posted by: Khan Noonien Singh | Tuesday, January 01, 2019 at 03:44 PM
Second Life (as opposed to Linden Lab) will have a CEO who for the first time ever never says: "Often our users have no real idea of what they want until we [the senior thought leaders in the company] tell them"
Linden Lab are not the only company cursed with senior thought leaders who have over the years said stuff like this about their users. Is absolutely no need to say it or even think it. It baffles me when they do
Second Life users do know what they want. They want everything. A thing with the one thing intra-user arguments isn't that the thing is unwanted by the users. The thing is always wanted. What the users argue about is where in the resource priority schedule is the thing they want, as opposed to the thing that another user wants. When the other user gets what they want from resource prioritisation and we don't get the thing we want because priority, then we are happy for them. And we wait for the thing we want and get on with being happy with all the things we do have
In the lower ranks of Linden Lab, the staff get this. These staff have the same one thing intra-arguments. The staff want everything as well and are happy to wait if thats all there is
As Fortnite is showing, Minecraft before it. Something is eating Second Life for lunch. And it isn't Sansar. Whats eating Second Life is that Linden Lab is getting eaten for lunch and dinner by other companies. Family-oriented, all-ages, targeting companies
Second Life for better or worse is now a product for adults. It can never be a family-oriented product. The family-oriented part was all over when the Teen Grid was abandoned
Linden Lab needs to split. Spin Second Life into a separate company. When do this then Linden Lab can get back to being a lab - like a research lab - using Sansar to push the technological boundaries. Which is what the Lab has always been good at - innovating and pushing technology to its limits and beyond, and nevermind its users
Spinning Second Life into another company could deliver to Linden Lab a whole bunch of cash - cash for lab work - meaning Sansar. Build Sansar with this company money, and not continue to hope that Second Life users will continue for ever and a day to pay for something that may ultimately put them and the virtual world they love into the grave
Linden Lab as a innovating center has lost its mojo because as a company it has no unity of purpose, its vision is divided, and the fear of Second Life collapsing is ever present
so thats my prediction. Second Life to get a CEO who never ever says: Our users have no real idea of what they want. And I think to get this then spin Second Life into its own company, with its own shareholders, board, CEO and staff. And its own everloving users who after 15 years do know what they want
Posted by: irihapeti | Wednesday, January 02, 2019 at 01:06 AM
Linden Lab will force the Second Life residents to Sansar. That too will fail for lack of proper migration tools. After this last attempt Sansar will be disbanded. Second Life will keep inching to the place we know it has been inching to for the past decade. No sane CEO will embark into this mess again.
Posted by: Cormoran | Wednesday, January 02, 2019 at 06:41 AM
A new CEO should have been on last years agenda. This year, I can't even imagine how they would go about filling that position. It should be a quiet move, like the neighbors who load up a U-Haul after midnight. Things and people should just start disappearing without a peep. They need a bigger plan than "mesh-on-a-stick" before they can talk to the public and I don't believe they have anything.
My 2019 wish is the Lab has someone in their ranks who is capable of quietly running their business from the ground, instead of into it. We've supported Ebbe's gambling addiction too long and he's generated enough hot air to fill a fleet of balloons to Dreamland. Him and his flock need to take them and sail away.
Posted by: Clara Seller | Wednesday, January 02, 2019 at 08:25 AM
Second Life will grow from the current 30% adult-themed regions to 50% as sex slowly becomes it's only focus and purpose.
Posted by: Who cares. | Thursday, January 03, 2019 at 04:50 PM