Linden Lab CEO Announces Sansar Now Up For Sale; Company to Instead Focus “Entirely on Second Life and Tilia”; Philip Rosedale Not Among Returning “Heavy Hitters”

Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg on today's episode of Lab Gab, its company-to-community news program on YouTube, discussing Sansar:

“Sadly we have decided we as Linden Lab couldn’t continue to sponsor the project financially so we’re looking for a plan B for Sansar to continue.

“I can’t say much but we’re having interesting conversations with several parties to help that project move forward… but no deal is done yet, so people will have to be patient to see what happens with it.

“But yes it’s true that Linden Lab going forward will focus entirely on Second Life and Tilia. But I’m still busy making sure Sansar finds a great home.”

Ebbe then went on to address the announcement that several "heavy hitters" are returning to Linden Lab to help develop Second Life:

Philip is not coming back to Linden Lab, Ebbe Altberg said, but that three heavy hitters with deep Second Life experience have indeed returned. Added Ebbe: “We’ll let them introduce themselves if they want to.” However, noted Lab Gab's co-host, some users have already noticed long-defunct Lindens recently appearing on the grid. 

Comments

[Fuzzball Ortega]

Can't say that I'm surprised about the Sansar news. Perhaps if the VR headsets took off as they had expected, the story would be different. It is something made for game developers, or even film makers, whether it be CGI or other. You build this world for people to walk around and check out.

[Dee Moralized]

So Sansar is finally, kinda, more or less, I can't say much, but we're gonna find it a good home (in heaven?).

In other news, 3 big exciting heavy hitters will be joining the team and I'll leave it up to them whether or not they want to let anyone know that they are working for us or have any contact with you people at all.

We will be having a small welcoming reception at an undisclosed location.

[Iggy 1.0]

Quick, SLers, look busy! The Lab is going to be interested in us again, as 50K users are better than what? 500?

As for Sansar, well, duh. Said it years ago: Peak of Inflated Expectations for Scuba-Mask Life plummets into Trough of Disillusionment and return to something that works (mostly) on the devices that (mostly) normal folk actually own and use.

[sirhc desantis]

Ah and I was about to go premium plus or..

What a useless canute is Ebbe

[jackson redstar]

I think Sansar could of only be of interest to someone not looking for much of a ROI and a really niche market. Even the user database isn't enough at the point to be of much interest. But still is sad news as Linden and other creators put alot of work into this,

[Bet]

Aww Sansar was supposed to be "like Second Life,but better!" If they expected SL types to move over- even to try it out-- they missed how many people are at work when in world, child/elder watching or just want nice hair and not to get dizzy.

I don't understand the ridicule Premium Plus was given by Grumpity,calling it Premium Bulouse over and over --don't they want to sell the add-on when it comes out? Would new Coke have sold more if insulted before introduced? Weird, if they think it's a joke product, think I will too.

[Stone]

I remember being interviewed by Dax and saying that Sansar would NEVER amount to anything and that SL folks were not going to rushing out to get expensive computers and headsets - most can barely keep themselves in the 2007 OS now -folks threatened me and called me all sorts of names and that was 2015 - bahhhhh perhaps ebbe and company would be advised more by the folks who actually use this SL -

[HellHound]

So can. we start redesigning Secondlifes engine to support VR overall and Implement it into SL as a side option?

I'd love to be able to fully customize my character to how I want while running about as it in SL. Or driging tanks, flying planes.

Etc

[Ezra 2.0]

With a failure this big! basically selling half the company considering over a half decade of investment in manpower & resources with one point in time them stating SL was being run by a skeleton crew with almost all attention to Sansar how can Ebbe still have a job? when almost all the bad choices were through his approval!

This is the same man who took Rodvik Linden's diversified business plan with great products like Desura, Patternz & Blocksworld who then junked them or ran them into the ground...The strategy was low risk that did not require funding from SL to grow them.

If you think Sansar starved SL for resources you better bet Blocksworld is nothing but a corpse!..Rodvik had Disney & Marvel Licensees for Blocksworld that really made it a stand out, Ebbe threw all that out the window! including that rare Disney license and any new development.

Funny how a resident in SL can get a license to sell Hello Kitty content in SL but LL application to use HK was DENIED for experiences in Blocksworld!...LMFAO I wonder why?

[Jay]

It's clearly time the board cancel Ebbe.

He has never had a passion for SL.

[vwfan]

@Jay - I think the board of directors is also the problem with the Lab. The swamp is deep.

[Booboo]

This infuriated me. Laughing, acting flip about residents questions, the gasping financial strain of Sansars death--while we all stayed loyal in Second Life, and Sansar sucked us dry... And now we must wait decades for improvements, pay more, and the final straw, EPS: inferior product, deal it at your cost. Ebbie needs to go.

[Pepe Out]

The VR industry has not died, the bubble has deflated (true), but right now it is a growing market, similar to what a new game console would be. And in this VR game console it is very similar to Second Life. When you appear inworld, you appear at home, you can customize your character, you can teleport, it has a considerable immersion capacity. I think all those VR efforts should focus on Second Life and turn it into another application for Oculus, Viveport, Steam vr, Windows mr, etc ... VR CHAT is growing and has no currency, no creator market, is literally a baby. Second Life has a huge world to explore at the outset and a very considerable community of creators. I do not say that it becomes an exclusive VR application, but simply take advantage of the ability to be all at once and add another capacity.

[Bet]

I read official Forum notes on EEP - the Windlight project

https://community.secondlife.com/forums/topic/428374-environmental-enhancement-project-aka-eep-feedback-thread/page/20/ --

I maybe wrong but when they stick it in , not bug free and not going to be fixed per Ebbe in Lab Gab, it will be mandatory and breaks a ton of stuff that will make things, ah, unpleasant if the post 5/22/2019 at 8:07 AM, NiranV Dean is right even in part-- looks like a nightmare.

HUDs especially are needed for clothes, bdies, hunts etc these days.

Instead of dumping the whole grid in a problem , maybe order in pastrami sandwiches for the team, give them a "nice try" and wave bye-bye to EEP.

Like my Mom said to my hooker dress, "just cuz you wasted your birthday money on it doesn't mean I'm gonna let you wear it out of the house."

[Janjii Rugani]

At last LL wake up and understand it was not good to have 2 MUVE competing with each other in the same company and harming the users of the oldest enterprise.
a resident who invested thousands of dollars in years of content production and in gaining a loyal audience does not go to a new world, without a network, with a difficult construction engine, to start everything from scratch, in my experiments with rift glasses I found out that SL works very well in VR, so neither does SAMSAR take advantage of that
Janjii Rugani

[Claude]

Cue more smoke and mirrors to cover the previous smoke and mirrors. Just add more feed to pay for it.

Time to go skiing again!

[Cathartes Aura]

This Ole Carrion Eater fondly recalls all the bloated, stinking, and repulsively rotten corpses LL has served up to me over the years since 2006.

Grandfathered Tier, Sculpties(with no in-world sculptie building tools(soon to be followed by the exact same thing with mesh)), The Atlas Reduced Tier Program for Land Baron(s) - (SHHHHHHHHH - we're not supposed to know about that!!!), The First Great Land Dump - that killed off land values circa 2007-08, the Zindra Adult Land Scam, SL Enterprise, Linden Homes(to kill off lower end Landlords and capture those revenue streams for LL - sick shiz!), Desura, Patternz, Blocksworld, Sansar, etc. etc.

No wonder I weigh 500 lbs... I can't even get off the ground anymore I'm so grotesquely fat. Burrrrrrrrppppppppppppp. Caresses my rotund stomach with my gore encrusted beak.

And now Sansar... This beautifully ripe corpse is the best yet. Just love the taste of it. Repulsively rotten.

Would you take a plugged nickle for Sansar? Some hardly used crypto currency? Turkey Buzzard droppings? ;)

[Eden]

It is a pity that Sansar never took off. It would be perfect for VR if Sansar actually ran half-decently in VR.

[Iggy 1.0]

A Rip Van Winkle just woke up, with all this news.

I drove my 29-land-impact Dominus Shadow, circa 2007, last night for the first time in about 10 years.

Saw "new" vehicles for sale in Mesh with...only 57 land-impact! And still, sim-crossings were dodgy in the empty mainland, along the Wellington Road. Only home was that of a kinkpot into BDSM. She was out.

Then I wrecked my fake car by running off the road, hitting a ban line, and being ejected to the sim edge.

It felt good to be back again.

[Iggy 1.0]

@Cathartes, you forgot to mention the tier-hike of 2010, mid-year, that killed off lots of Academic and nonprofit SLers' investments. They were already leaving, but the flow become a flood.

Had the Lab had anyone who understood how fiscal years work, and how funding for something like rent get determined every 1 July.

But that's the Lab: murder their customers, fire their brightest. How on earth do they keep in business?

[Pup Witherspoon]

So.. Who wants to buy the EDSEL version of a VR environment that never worked?

[Large Marge]

I guess if i can't beat them then join them!

my new RL job for the last 6 months has went downhill & since SL sales paid for my new Gaming PC last year I am going to reopen/rebrand my stores preparing to use them as an income source by trying to triple that steady $500 a month income as a safety net when i leave my job.

Why am i telling everyone this? ...well if linden lab can just suddenly make SL a priority after years of being on life support, after wasting tens of millions of dollars that could have updated SL into something greater then guess what? i need to reexamine this as an opportunity to make money helping all the fools & their money part ways right into my pocket! Ebbe Style!
At this point many not using SL on the outside looking in is really thinking all the residents are a bunch of D**mAs** and who could blame them?

[OriginalAdeonWriter™]

Residents can always tryout Opensim places like Osgrid,Kitely & Digiworldz plus we have a big Marketplace 100% compatible with Secondlife content.

Outworldz has free software allowing you to have you're own Secondlife on your PC it is called DreamGrid.

[Austin]

I tried sansar before they opened it to the public and wasn't impressed. Still wasn't impressed even after.I was honest about what I thought in the questionnaire too. Just wasn't user friendly... And not much to do. I love second life, and hope they find ways to improve it.

[pixels]

SANSAR was doomed when LL failed to work out a deal with Apple to make it compatible wit Mac users. That is significant market share and user base,

I do appreciate their efforts building a whole new platform but it was not well thought out.

I am glad LL will be refocusing on SL.

[Randsome]

Let it clearly be known and understood. Sansar failed not because there wasn't a market, a VR market that is growing by the way right now. YouTubers are playing more VR than ever before - its just that Sansar didn't provide anything of entertainment value to anyone and its snobby non-corporate creators have their egos so large they are beyond criticism and in their little circle of yes-persons there is no reason to improve anything because theyre the best in the world. Sansar fails because staff bad decisions over and over being lazy and playing around for 4 years instead of hitting the phones, the streets, the conferences what have you to sell people on it. what a disgusting embarrasment and waste to come all this way and then want to bail out and return to second life this may be the end of LL going back in time
god if anything if theyre back to sl make it a modern platform people are more educated and demanding gotta be more than government sponsored artsy fartsy exhibits to get people to stay and play

[hue]

Second life is run by pedophiles.

[Flashing Merlin]

I feel sorry for Ebbe. A lot of people fell for VR goggle hype. Must be embarrassing to have bet so heavily on it. He should be given a chance to sell Sansar, or wind it down, before being fired.

He deserves credit for keeping Second Life going, instead of trying to force us to move. I don't know if he'll be able to find another job after this multi-million dollar Sansar disaster. Perhaps he'll decide to start his own company as Rod Humble did. Would be ironic if Ebbe used his experience to open a new business in Second Life!

[Pinkie & the Brain]

@ Flashing Merlin "a new business in Second Life!"

Could be a store called.. Ebbe's Ski School & Supply?

[Mel]

What should be looked at are users who have accounts terminated because of false accusations by other users and for someone to be held accountable for terminating accounts that have spent real money on bodies...heads...etc....instead of Linden robbing us of our hard end cash which we use in sl.

[MuhnamesJeff]

It cant be LL without even having the microphones levelled to the same volume. Been annoyed with hearing to turn it down each time one speaks that is super loud while the others are quiet...

On Topic though,
It was kind of expected with Sansar, it seemed to be running in to a deadend.
I really dont get wh they want more and more Premium levels, Can't one not be enough? Is it really needed to have more?

What about some serious bug fixes, like the Advanced materials horizon glitch as well as adding some more features to the avie bone structure.
Mouselook camera (position) adjustment, simcross fixes...
And probably a lot more to name...

[Adeon Writer]

Given only Linden Lab's reliable track record of making the wrong moves, and not taking any other information into account, it can be predicted that VR will become very popular in the coming years.

[Not Adeon Writer]

The comment above seems more like something I would actually write which is disconcerting.

[vwfan]

@Flashing Merlin - "Would be ironic if Ebbe used his experience to open a new business in Second Life!"

At least then he would finally understand his own product and how users use the tools. Although, I bet he's probably too dumb to know what to do with his own product without being spoonfed. Time to search for SL tutorials on Youtube!

@MuhnamesJeff - "I really don't get why they want more and more Premium levels. Can't one not be enough? Is it really needed to have more?"

Premium options cater only to certain ideals of users and some people don't see the value in it for what they do or how they spend their money. Sadly, SL lacks needed feature innovations and platform enhancements to even consider more user types premium options.

[Intlibber]

Good point vwfan. Running their own business in SL should be a prerequisite, though thats been of questionable value in the past due to conflicts of interest. Question is: Will LL relegalize all the economic activities they have previously banned?

[Cathartes Aura]

@ Iggy 1.0. I forgot about the Educational Institution Exodus of 2010! My Alma Mater - Turkey Buzzard U(Pecker Tech). was one of the victims. They had 2 regions if I remember correctly.

I don't go in-world much anymore these days either. Glad to hear your car still works! Every now and then I go to Starboards. Rez my Tako. And sail through the Blake Sea towards Sirens Island. Looking out for those merpeople.

Congratulations to the Lindens who constructed that part of the Blake Sea. Still very cool after all these years! The underwater stuff is beautiful.

I'm grateful. Thankful to have been there to see SL in it's glory. I was second wave - 2006 so I don't know what it was like prior to that. Late summer and fall of 2006 was amazing. There was something about SL then. It was Electric. Buzzing with activity, ideas, and freedom. And then it all changed...

Hunter S. Thompson said it better than I ever could.

"We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave... So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high water mark — that place where the wave finally broke, and rolled back.”

For those of us that rode that wave I give a big salute and Thank You to Philip Rosedale. It was f$cking fun! ;)

[Adeon Writer]

A Second Life 2 is desperately needed. Second Life can't ride on forever with it's 2001 engine. That's what Sansar was supposed to be, but bad choices were made, particularly not supporting everyone's inventories.

It would be ok to break all of physics, requiring creators either re-script their content or write them up as losses that are now static models... but at least the inventories would *be there* in a game engine not made 20 years ago.

Linden's dogma of not breaking existing content curses it into obscurity.

[Exit]

Boy, I can empathize with Cathartes Aura looking back at the best days of SL. It's hard to put into words. Philip Rosedale, for better or worse, was really part of the magic.

Even though things were more rustic, there was the challenge of exceeding limits that was available to everyone. Hours seemed like minutes and every day was filled with choices of adventure.

Now, the average user is bogged down by limits. Copies of copies of copies and the minutes seem like hours.

[Cathartes Aura]

@Exit. You're 110% on the mark in your description of what the SL experience is these days and how it was back then. 180 degree difference.

Here's a blast from the past... Archan. Fey's Fantasies. Bukkake Bliss. The Original Money Tree. Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong(lol!). Pontiac Racing Sims. Grey Goo. The Amazing Flying Penii. Your first visit to Xcite HQ to look at the "twigs and berries" and "ladies flowers". lol! Good Times! ;)

[Clara Buyer]

In 2025 a question is asked, 'what ever happened to Secondlife? ..an old and tired wispers Benny Hill Happened.

[eksynn]

they should have worked on SL from the get-go instead of branching it off into an entirely, and useless virtual world. update the friggin engine already.

[Adeon Writer]

> The comment above seems more like something I would actually write which is disconcerting.

If you've got a personal beef with me, I think it would be more mature if you just talk your problems out with me instead of constantly being passive aggressive with the callouts.

[Luther Weymann]

Forty million registered users for Second Life in the Linden Research database and for a software company to not to pursue those former users with a huge financial investment in the software upgrade of their already successful Second Life product(yes that would be difficult but not impossible)ranks as one of the worst corporate decisions since Mitch screwed up Lotus.

[The Coffeehouse]

Gee-whiz who cares about Ebbe Linden refocusing on 2ndlife! it's like a bad relationship were your partner promises to stop drinking but hides bottles of booze all over the house.

You think they learned a lesson?, really? wanting to truly 'care now' for 2ndlife?

“But yes it’s true that Linden Lab going forward will focus entirely on Second Life and Tilia. "

Tilia
Tilia
Tilia
Beyond Tilia, Going to take on Paypal?
They are just going to create more none virtual services payed for by who? from were? it's coming wait and see the next brilliant idea to suck 2ndlife dry

See how blocksworld was left out?
it once had a million daily users when Ebbe took over,
now around 7000 daily.
run into the ground to help fund Sansar! how pathetic!

Now to on to someone many love & care about!
Ebbe fired TORLEY LINDEN!
blaming Torley for Sansars inability to retain users!
Used Torley as a scapegoat!
pathetic! disgusting!
all Torley did for the lab & the Community for over a decade they just dumped him out on the street, like a bag of garbage!

Amplify YOUR Awesomeness!
RIP Torley!

[NOT Hand Held]

Adeon stop talking to yourself & Epstein didn't kill himself

[KharmasABiatch]

@NOT Hand Held: WHAT????? They had the audacity to blame Torley and then fire him??? Do you have a link to that info before I get too worked up about it?

I've already downgraded to basic after discovering a couple of areas (as a premium member) where LL are being deliberately dishonest, helping themselves to land tier when they're not entitled to it, and being shifty about it in such a way that no one thinks to question what they've been doing. Possibly for several years.

Strangely enough, after I'd uncovered what they were doing I alerted friends, some of whom were very quick to remove permissions for Tilia/LL in their PayPal accounts and who are also in the process of downgrading to basic - some closing their accounts and leaving entirely.

A word to the wise: Crap on your customers and those who've helped you get where you are, LL, and what goes around, comes around. Usually without mercy.

[sergi]

heard something along the same outline the coffeeshop mentions while logged into sansar had torly on my friendlist he spoken of unbearable pressure over him he started having severe insomnia after they wrot him up over fake stuff other lindens clamed like stolen lunch out of refrigerater very humilating

[Amber]

Going to miss him =(
torley loved SL with all his heart.

[Neon Republic]

Second Life is a business not a charity so stop the whining peeps.

[T.Bucklinder]

I don't think anyone I knew had any interest in Sansar at any point, we just ended up being the piggy bank. I haven't been on SL in a minute, but I hope everyone still there finds something good from all this mess.

[TD_Gunner]

I am soooooo happy. The monster is dead. Ebbe is an utter disaster - FIRE HIM!

[Mel is a Griefer and Deserves HisBans]

@Mel maybe next time you and your griefing alts play nice with people and they won't ban you.

[misty cormick]

i think i can help.. im learning the tech stuff.. but i do have the tools.. ill need a much more advanced computer.. which can be done in the near future. if i can prove to the canadian government i am creating jobs i can apply for grants and get those employees their jobs back. all that while introducing some new features id like to add to the current set up. if anyone's interested

Misty Cormick
wookey technoligies
[email protected]