UPDATE June 24: Over the last several days there have been further comments from Ebbe Linden Altberg about a new virtual world from Linden Lab and additional reporting and insightful commentary from some of virtual worlds’ top bloggers. Here are some links…
by Inara Pey –
Ebbe: hiring 40-50 new staff, new platform to launch in 2016
Lab: “We’re not giving up on Second Life”
by Jo Yardley –
Ebbe talks to SL users about SL2
by Ciaran Laval –
Second Life Can Still Thrive With The Birth Of Linden Lab’s New World
Bagman Linden On Why The Virtual World Market Is Ripe For Bigger And Better
by Nalates Urriah –
More Information on Second Life 2.0
by Maria Korolov –
Is Linden Lab abandoning Second Life?
by Mona Eberhardt –
More information and some thoughts on LL’s new, work-in-progress, virtual world
by Gaga Gracious –
Linden Lab CEO Promises a Brave New Second Life – Don’t Panic!
by Loki Eliot –
My Thoughts On A Second Second Life
***
The original post from June 20:
A very big story is breaking in the virtual world. It’s being reported that the CEO of Linden Lab has said publicly that the Lab is turning its attention away from Second Life and toward another platform.
Linden’s CEO Ebbe Altberg responded to a tweet from Jo Yardley of the 1920s Berlin Project about the Lab’s focus…
“We are working on next gen. Not starting out open source. I said we will not constrain how good it can be based on the past,” Altberg said.
***
I will add links as new reports and comment appear.
***
Inara Pey has posted on her blog and has audio from the developers meeting where Altberg’s comments were made.. See Inara’s Comment below as well.
…and a follow-up from Inara with the Lab’s official statement…
http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/lab-were-not-giving-up-on-second-life/
Jo Yardley has posted on her blog..
Maria Korolov of Hypergrid Business says this is bad news for open sim...
…and has a follow-up article – and more in the Comments – as well…
Ciaran Laval had one of the first posts of this news on his blog…
Breaking Rumour – Linden Lab Working On Nextgen Virtual World?
Journey To The Center Of The Metaverse 
Clarification: the Lab is NOT “turning away” from SL. This work has been in development for around 2 years and in not ready for prime time. The plan is to run it in parallel with SL, without any preconceptions as to what will happen vis SL or when. In the meantime, SL will continue to be developed and enhanced.
LikeLike
Hi Inara,
Great job on the coverage of this topic, as always.
I think “turning away” is accurate. And if I take Ebbe’s comments at face value, it doesn’t appear this new venture has been going on for two years. I pulled this quote of Ebbe from the post you made on the Firestorm page, “…So it’s not a requirement from day one that’s it’s open-source. But like I said; ‘day one’ was very recent…”
At this point, numerous outcomes are possible so I certainly won’t count out the possibility that the new LL world becomes a success and replaces Second Life.
LL doesn’t have to blow it up and start again. They can keep it going and start again. I’m glad to see that that is what they are doing. However, last week, I expected SL to be around for a long time. This week, I do not.
The definition of “a long time” in the context of virtual worlds? Beats me. 🙂
LikeLike
*sigh*
Second Life is NOT open source. The viewer is, but the server-side code, which is the most important part, has never been open source. How people think that, just because the viewer is open source, the server is too… It boggles my mind.
Also, indeed the Lab has been working on a replacement for SL since 2012.
And… By the way… If LL was turning away from SL, they wouldn’t be planning new capabilities and improvements for it.
LikeLike
sighing right back at ya
you’ve missed the point. i’m not using the quote to make any point about open source. i have no interest there.
i used the quote for the phrase “‘day one was very recent.”
very recent is not two years ago.
and, by the way, i’m staying with “turning away.”
and i’m saying it just as smugly. 🙂
LikeLike
Pingback: When an asteroid approaches your virtual world… | Avataric