Second-Life
Second Life’s creator is returning to advise the original metaverse company
The creator of one of the earliest and most enduringly iconic virtual worlds is returning to his roots. Second Life’s founder Philip Rosedale will rejoin the company he founded in 1999 as a stra
Meta’s Horizon Worlds is available in the US and Canada for 18+ users
The company formerly known as Facebook is taking a step toward its goal to transport us to the metaverse. Now, Horizon Worlds — the Second Life or Minecraft of Meta’s VR apps — is ex
Jamaica’s immigration website exposed thousands of travelers’ data
A security lapse by a Jamaican government contractor has exposed immigration records and COVID-19 test results for hundreds of thousands of travelers who visited the island over the past year. The Jam
Digitizing Burning Man
For decades, Burning Man has represented an escape from the current reality. An event for free-er spirits to rethink new age ideals inside a stateless entity where art, music and partying reign suprem
K4Connect, a startup bringing tech to senior living centers, closes its $21M Series B
K4Connect, a startup focused on bringing new technologies like voice assistance, home automation, digital messaging and more to older adults and those living with disabilities, has closed on $21 milli
Second Life-maker calls it quits on their VR follow-up
The game developer behind Second Life has abandoned its grand efforts for a virtual reality follow-up to its early 2000s hit. SF-based Linden Lab announced today that they’ve sold off assets rel
Making money from games: The future of virtual economies
Fictional portrayals of virtual worlds such as “Ready Player One” and “The Matrix” typically portray the physical and virtual worlds as distinct realms siloed from each other.
If socializing within games is so popular, why hasn’t the multiverse arrived yet?
Thus far in this series we’ve outlined “multiverse” virtual worlds — a concept different from the metaverse — as the next stage of social media and what this future will look lik
Facebook announces Horizon, a VR massive-multiplayer world
Facebook today announced it’s building its own Ready Player One Oasis. Facebook Horizon is a virtual reality sandbox universe where you can build your own environments and games, play and social
The portrait of an avatar as a young artist
In this episode of Flux I talk with LaTurbo Avedon, an online avatar who has been active as an artist and curator since 2008.
How Roblox avoided the gaming graveyard and grew into a $2.5B company
There are successful companies that grow fast and garner tons of press. Then there’s Roblox, a company which took at least a decade to hit its stride and has, relative to its current level of succes
In the future there will be mindclones
This an exciting excerpt from the new book Thinking Machines by Like Dormehl. The book offers a detailed history of primitive machine learning and a dense and fascinating look at the future of true ar
Second Life creators look to revamp reality once again, this time in VR
The team is now embarking on its most ambitious project yet, a wide-reaching virtual reality network called Project Sansar that is, in many ways, aiming to become a new layer of reality that gives
High Fidelity Raises $11M To Build Deployable Virtual Worlds
High Fidelity, the San Francisco-based startup from Second Life founder Philip Rosedale, has raised another $11 million in funding in a round led by Paul Allen's Vulcan Capital. The funding was noted
Foundation And Big Data
The Internet has become the world’s Sorting Hat: it identifies, and increasingly defines, the subculture(s) to which people belong. Does your Facebook feed feature Mother Jones or Fox News? The Guar
How Linden Lab Hopes To Find Second Life In Mobile Creative Play
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 n
Second Life Gets A Life 2.0 At Sundance
<img src="http://tctechcrunch.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/Life2.0-215x97.png" width="215" height="97" />
Does anybody go to Second Life anymore? It seems like a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/u
Does Anybody Still Use Second Life? And If So, How Much Is It Worth Today?
<img src="https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/secondlifelogo.gif" width="160" height="68" />
Analyst firm <a href="http://www.nextupresearch.com/Site/NEXT_up!.html">Next Up Research</a> has published a
Taser sues Second Life over fake in-game Tasers
<img src="http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/cd.jpg" />Ah, Taser. The <a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/21/monster-cable-good-products-dick-company/">Monster Cable</a> of pe