Wallace Reports Linden Lab Signs of Trouble

Uh, kaboom alert.

Check out 3pointd reporter Mark Wallace article “”Linden Lab Approaches A Crossroads” on the signs of trouble at Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. Major issues are:

1. Scalability
2. Relationship with metaverse services groups such as like Millions of Us, Rivers Run Red, and the Electric Sheep Company
3. As well as corporate/news groups, including Cisco, IBM, Reuters
4. 2D Web interface development
5. User retention in light of potential “unverified users” policy

Wallace writes:

First off, while the locking out of unverified users on weekends may not come to pass, it certainly looks like Linden Lab feels it will be needed. It can’t be a good sign that this solution, described as a “contingency plan,” was cooked up after the problem arose that it’s designed to solve. Nor can it be reassuring to investors that the Lab’s best solution, at present, is to lock out potential paying customers.

He concludes:

Linden Lab’s apparent goal has been to become the gold standard of 3D virtual world platforms. They’ve been successful in that so far in large part because there has not been a competitor as free and open as Second Life. What the Lab looks like doing now, though, is putting up more barriers, rather than pushing further into the openness that has been their biggest comparative advantage.