2003-05-14 00:00:00 UTC
Rapidly Growing 3D Online World Set to Expand After Successful Beta
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (May 14, 2003) - Linden Lab™ today announced plans to launch Second Life™, its highly-anticipated new online world, in June. The freely downloadable service will be priced at $14.95 per month, with discounted longer term memberships also available.
Thousands of Second Life residents have been working together since March 2002 to create a remarkable, rich 3D society where you can dance the night away with friends, explore exotic cities, battle in underground tunnels, or sit quietly in your backyard and watch the sun go down over the hills.
"Second Life is the first service which captures the passion of online adventurers to create a world of their own design," said Philip Rosedale, CEO and founder. "In less than 6 months, our beta members have created a world with a range of experiences rivaling the real world. As we rapidly add new land to support our incoming members, the exploration and possibilities of Second Life will become truly endless."
Second Life residents begin by creating their in-world avatar, with an easy-to-use tool that allows them to recreate their exact 'real-world look or to craft a whole new persona, from dark angel to Japanese warrior to beauty queen. Each resident also begins with enough money to shop for clothes or accessories, buy some land and build a small home. Daily events, including games, classes, parties and treasure hunts, help them make friends, earn money, or become increasingly skilled at creating whatever they can imagine. Before long they are fully immersed in the society of Second Life.
"In five months I built two homes, a wizard's staff, an island, a wizard's tower, an Arcade and Casino, arcade and gambling games, a Church with a graveyard and the common room of an Inn," said Ama Omega, a Second Life resident since December, 2002. "I have joined two city communities, an 1800's haunted village community, and created a community of my own. I have met hundreds of people from all over the world and won lotteries. I have taken classes and taught classes, been to town hall meetings, house warming parties, lottery drawings, trivia competitions, sports games, and game shows. And I've only started."
Second Life will initially be available for Windows-based PCs, with Mac and Linux versions following by the end of 2003. "We deeply support open, cross-platform products, and will complete ports of Second Life to the Mac and Linux PC before the end of the year. Our server network runs on Linux, and we use open standard products wherever possible, such as Open GL and the Ogg-Vorbis sound format," said Cory Ondrejka, vice president of product development.
Becoming a part of Second Life is easy and fun, with a simple 10MB download that gets residents into the world in less than 5 minutes, with a free 5-day trial. Second Life works on any broadband internet connection, and has similar system requirements to most recent 3D games.
The Second Life service will be priced at $14.95 per month of membership, with reduced pricing for longer commitments. Additionally, the company will be offering a limited number of "Charter" lifetime memberships. And as an expression of appreciation to Early Creators and beta testers, long-term and lifetime memberships will be offered to them at a substantially discounted rate.
In the future advanced users, teams of players, or software developers will be able to lease "Private Islands" within the Second Life world. Each of these 16 acre islands will reside on a dedicated server capable of supporting large development projects, themed communities, or specialized game experiences.
About Linden Lab
Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D entertainment. The former CTO of RealNetworks, Rosedale pioneered the development of many of today's streaming media technologies, including RealVideo. In April 2003, noted software pioneer Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation, was named Chairman.
Based in San Francisco, Linden Lab employs a senior development team bringing together deep expertise in physics, 3D graphics and networking. Team members have previously worked for market leading companies such as Electronic Arts, Maxis, Disney, THQ, Acclaim, Hasbro, Mattel and RealNetworks.
Note to editors: Second Life™ and Linden Lab™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc.