November 21st, 2012

How Linden Lab Hopes To Find Second Life In Mobile Creative Play

creatorverse

The timing is likely right for Linden Lab to change direction: reports recently indicate Second Life is shedding users, with passive viewing becoming the dominant interaction method. Gaming industry notable Rob Humble, who previously worked with EA on the Sims franchise, took the reins at Linden Lab as CEO in 2011, however, and now the company is putting out mobile products that look vastly… → Read More

February 16th, 2012

Linden Lab Acquires Game Studio LittleTextPeople To Build Beyond Second Life

Linden Lab Logo

Independent game studio LittleTextPeople made waves at GDC with its eponymous interactive fiction game. Now it’s been acquired by virtual world pioneer Linden Lab, who will use its team and tech to create standalone products outside of its sole game Second Life. LittleTextPeople says it brings a “simulator able to model social practices and individual personalities”. That means the new Linden Lab… → Read More

June 24th, 2010

Amidst Turmoil, Linden Lab's CEO Steps Down

June has not been a good month for Linden Lab, the creator of virtual world Second Life. A few weeks ago, the company announced that it was laying off 30 percent of its staff and taking Second Life into a new direction. Today, Linden Lab is announcing that current CEO Mark Kingdon (pictured here) is stepping down. Company founder Philip Rosedale has been named interim CEO, and CFO Bob Komin has… → Read More

June 9th, 2010

Linden Lab Lays Off 30 Percent Of Staff

Linden Lab, the company behind virtual world Second Life, is laying off 30 percent of its staff, according to a release issued today. Labeled as a “restructuring,” the company is consolidating its software development team in North America and is “reconfiguring” its customer support department.

The move reflects a new strategy for Linden Lab, says the company, which aims make its virtual world… → Read More

July 2nd, 2009

Does Anybody Still Use Second Life? And If So, How Much Is It Worth Today?

Analyst firm Next Up Research has published an extensive report on Linden Lab, the San Francisco company behind virtual world Second Life. The research is based on aggregate data and is available on SharesPost, a site set up to trade shares of privately held companies (if you register, you can download the report for free from that page, or you can find other valuation reports on companies like → Read More

July 31st, 2008

Philip Rosedale Doesn't See Browser-Based Virtual Worlds As A Threat to Second Life. Is He In Denial?

http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&file=http%3A//blip.tv/rss/flash/1139135&feedurl=http%3A//techcrunch.blip.tv/rss/&autostart=false&brandname=TechCrunch&brandlink=http%3A//techcrunch.blip.tv/ Recently, there’s been a growing wave of startups and products appearing that are bringing 3-D virtual worlds to the browser. These include Vivaty… → Read More

July 8th, 2008

IBM And Second Life Announce Interoperability, But Bridging Virtual Worlds Is the Wrong Answer

Virtual worlds like Second Life have a silo issue—they are virtual worlds unto themselves. Today, Linden Lab (which operates Second Life) and IBM announced that they have successfully bridged two virtual worlds, with avatars from Second Life successfully “teleporting” to an entirely different metaverse based on an OpenSim server. The two companies have been working together on the… → Read More