Ex-Second Life CEO Creating New Virtual World Sim Called... Life by You

Well this is an interesting reveal from Paradox Interactive (watch at 16:10): Life by You, a new life simulation game that's getting a full reveal later this month.  

Project lead of Life by You is Rod Humble, the game industry veteran who was once CEO of Linden Lab, and before that, was VP at Electronic Arts, where he worked on The Sims franchise (among many other tiles). From the brief glimpses we get from the teaser, Life by You looks like a cross between Second Life and The Sims, with some suburban sim living gameplay, but also quite a lot of user creativity enabled:

The home-building UI (above), for example, has a wide range of building options; plus there's hints of a wider virtual world to explore.

But no point speculating too wildly just yet -- Humble is set to offer an extended preview on March 20, so stay tuned for that.

Interesting title choice for sure, as it (intentionally?) evokes Second Life. When Rod became Linden Lab's CEO in 2011, I asked him if the name itself was a problem. He argued otherwise:

“If I was to tell you there’s this product [where] you can be whoever you want to be, and you can play games, listen to music, watch videos, attend roleplaying games, run a business and fashion shows, you’d probably think I’m crazy...

"I don’t think the offering itself is unappealing... over time, the perception of Second Life has changed and it’s kinda been yanked around by us.” He noted the company variously offered up Second Life as a business platform, a virtual platform for adults, or a game, “and we’ve kinda mushed it up... It’s foremost a tool where you can make and do whatever you want. Over time, that [negative] brand perception will change as we do the right thing...”

“When it comes to names and perceptions like that, I think those things can always change over time... I still remember [the mockery] when the Wii was announced... then it blew everyone away.” With The Sims, he noted, “For awhile there, people were saying ‘Why do I want to go into a game and pee?’” Then the game franchise became a monster hit. So with the name Second Life, “I don’t think it’s going to be an anchor.”

Shifting the perception of Second Life proved difficult during his tenure. Then again, no one else has managed to solve that challenge. My impression is that he's better suited for leading development on a specific project, as opposed to leading what Linden Lab was dealing with back then -- a mostly unsuccessful struggle to grow beyond its existing user base with a number of other products that weren't quite a suitable fit.

Comments

[Kitty]

I think if they can find a way to move into building out the creative tools, this could be something that competes. Right now it just looks like a simple redo of the sims. EA/Maxis is trying essentially corner the custom content market and integrate it into the gameplay, however, it depends on whether Paradox can get it out in time before 5 comes out, which isn't any time soon. I think EA/Maxis need more competitors out there pushing them because EA has been sucking out the prior games' innovation with sims 4.

Like I said above, paradox should really look at the creative tools because that is where the sims is struggling with now. The custom content creators are releasing are done through third-party apps and externally through blender and photoshop, and then trying to monetize their creations against EA/Maxis wishes and desire for a large piece of that pie. Whoever is able to bring a high level of internal customizing tools to the table will win, but I honestly feel that Sims 3 already had the customization tools and ea has said they are bringing that back to 5, plus leaks (probably deeply unofficial) have shown that they are pursuing some kind of modular type of system with objects.

[Drake]

Boldly going where everyone has gone before... Boring..