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Second Life Real Estate Crash?
By Anna Johnson on November 5th, 2008Linden Labs, owner of virtual world Second Life, has raised the prices on its “Openspaces” virtual land by two-thirds, from U.S. $75 to $125 a month.
According to Silicon Alley Insider the move reflects a grab for cash as Second Life’s paying customer base declines, prices in the avatar-to-avatar after market for land have bottomed out, and Linden has been unable to sell new virtual land because of the glut.
While charging existing customers higher prices may be a wise move in the short term, it’s no answer to the long-term problem of declining consumer interest.
Writes Eric Krangel:
“there’s only so much blood that can be squeezed from a stone. For Linden Lab to survive, it can’t keep raising usage fees, and it can’t try to con business users into teleconferencing in Second Life when the product is so poorly suited to enterprise use. In the end, Linden needs to pull off an image overhaul and make Second Life once again a hip place to be, with a growing population and a steady influx of new land-owners (read: paying customers). If Linden can do that, it prospers. If it can’t, it’s doomed.”
Source: Eric Krangel, “Real Estate Crashes In Second Life, Too: Linden Lab’s Bailout Plan”, October 28, 2008
