Second Life generates 15 billion minutes in web voice calls
When you think of phone companies, Linden Lab’s Second Life virtual world doesn’t come to mind. But the company is announcing today that its users have used its web-voice calling feature to talk to each other for a total of 15 billion minutes since it was introduced 18 months ago.
The voice-over-Internet-protocol web calling service inside the virtual world is now being used at a rate of 1 billion minutes per month, said Mark Kingdon, chief… Continue Reading
Real world laws intrude on virtual world behavior
Navigating the laws of cyberspace is getting ever more complex as virtual worlds themselves become mirrors of the real world. That’s one clear message from a Stanford University event on legal frontiers for digital media that I attended today.
Protecting children from predators is at the top of the list. But there are thorny issues about who owns the property created in the worlds, what rights to privacy should users expect, how operators should work with… Continue Reading
How I became a virtual world believer
The media narrative about Second Life and virtual worlds is starting to get past the hype stage, past the bashing stage, and is beginning to resemble reality. VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi has covered this shift in a thorough Q&A with parent company Linden Lab’s CEO Mark Kingdon.
Public misperception of Second Life and the virtual world landscape is beginning to change as we see what it means for the evolution a new global culture and economy.
I can… Continue Reading
Second Life moves into the virtual goods market business
Diving into one of the hot business models for virtual labs, Linden Lab said today it has acquired two virtual goods markets that sell items for the denizens of its Second Life virtual world.
Linden Lab has bought Xstreet SL and OnRez, two burgeoning online markets that sell hundreds of thousands of virtual goods to Second Life players, including clothes and accessories for their virtual characters, property and surroundings.
Tom Hale, a spokesman for Linden Lab, said… Continue Reading
Sony sets the stage for launch of its Home virtual world
Sony has started setting the stage for the launch of its Home virtual world. The company has been running beta tests with thousands of users for weeks now, and the formal launch is still expected to be this fall on the PlayStation Network.
About 18 months in the making, Home is Sony’s “Hail Mary” play in the console battle with Nintendo and Microsoft. It will test whether gamers really want a layer of social networking served… Continue Reading
Q&A: Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon on Second Life’s latest evolution
Virtual worlds are in fashion now, drawing investments of $184 million in 23 worlds in the first quarter. But the original player here is Linden Lab, which launched Second Life in 2002. Mark Kingdon came aboard as chief executive of Linden Lab in May, replacing longtime CEO and founder Philip Rosedale, who remains chairman. More than 15.1 million registered users have tried out the virtual world. Kingdon was formerly the CEO of online creative/marketing agency… Continue Reading
Will Martian water discovery fuel interest in sci-fi Blue Mars world?
The discovery of water on Mars might spur a lot of interest in the science fiction dream of terraforming the Red Planet into a habitable place. That could be good for Avatar Reality, a virtual world company in Honolulu that is building “Blue Mars,” a 3-D world with ambitious graphics and a setting that takes place after the successful colonization of Mars.
It is the brainchild of Kazuo Hashimoto, chief executive officer, and his cofounder Li-Han… Continue Reading
Funtactix launches cross-platform Moondo gaming universe
Funtactix wants to set itself apart in online games by addressing one of the most annoying problems: the inability for users to take their game characters and achievements from one game to another. With the Moondo cross-gaming universe being unveiled today, you can do just that.
So far, the universe is small with two games involving shooting and racing. But Sam Glassenberg, chief executive of the Menlo Park, Calif. company, says the company’s 3-D engine allows… Continue Reading
Vollee helps Second Life make the leap into mobile
Fans of Second Life can now access the virtual world through their mobile phones, thanks to a Redwood City, Calif. startup called Vollee.
Squeezing a relatively high-end game like Second Life onto your mobile phone without slowing the experience to a crawl is an impressive technical achievement. And this isn’t just some pared-down “check your status” feature, but a real mobile version of the game, one that lets you wander, fly or teleport through the world… Continue Reading
Roundup: Mashups at Web 2.0, Linden Lab gets new executive and more
Here’s the latest action:
Mashup companies take over Web 2.0 — InfoWorld profiles three companies making announcements at this week’s conference: Serena, which is launching an online marketplace for business mashups; JackBe, which has a new version of its enterprise mashup platform; and Kapow, which provides a hosted service to build mashups that provide web intelligence. We’ll also be writing more about Rearden Commerce and Zude in the next few days. And we just covered SnapLogic,… Continue Reading
Linden Lab CEO Rosedale plans to step down
Linden Lab, maker of the online virtual world Second Life, is looking for someone to fill founder and chief executive Philip Rosedale’s shoes. Rosedale (pictured on the left) has announced that he plans to step down as CEO of the San Francisco-based company, although he will stay involved as the new chairman of the board and will also have a full-time role in Linden Lab’s product development and strategy.
Rosedale, a former chief technology officer at… Continue Reading
Book review: The Making of Second Life
Last week I interviewed Wagner James Au about his new book, “The Making of Second Life: Notes From the New World.” Today, here is my review of the book. The Wall Street Journal published this review today and with their permission we’re making it available here in case you didn’t catch it. (I left it in their respectable style with honorifics).
Catherine Winters hit a bad patch about five years ago: The young Canadian woman,… Continue Reading