Linden Lab Q2 land report: lower sim pricing, new continent
by Tateru Nino 
Apr 8th 2008 at 12:30AM
Filed under: Economy, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds
Jack Linden has weighed in with the belated quarterly Second Life land supply and pricing report. Longer than the usual report, here's your key takeaways:
- New simulators: US$675 cheaper sometime this month.
- Opening auction prices dropping by US$500.
- New continent on the way to lower mainland prices.
Got your attention yet? We thought it might.
While you might easily miss it in the text, land prices on the Linden estate (aka the Mainland) have risen to an average L$11.5/sqm -- the median is sort of waved at in passing there, and while it is the more useful figure than the average we only know that it is below 10 -- and that accordingly April and May new mainland supply will be 10+ sims per day, with a new continent in the works.
So, new continent, more mainland rollout to reverse inflation of land prices.
But we know you're really more interested in that simulator price cut, right?
Sometime later this month, Linden Lab is launching the new version of their land store. With it comes a price drop on the initial fee for new simulators, down from US$1,675 to US$1,000. Monthly upkeep fees will remain the same at US$295.
If you just bought one at the old price? Ouch. We feel for you.
Likewise the opening auction price for new mainland regions will fall from US$1,250 to US$750. When? "Shortly" apparently. We'd say that is likely to coincide with the launch of the new land store and the reduction in new sim prices.
Jack promises more detailed information on all of this, including land-recycling and land taken from ad-farms in an upcoming post.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jay said on 3:53AM 4-08-2008
The other part of the blog in regards to the new land store was:
"It will be cross browser compatible and will provide nearly instant delivery of a new island after completing checkout."
No more waiting 10 business days for concierge to provision a server.
And of course... with the first month's tier for a private region being included in the US$1000 the actual cost of the island is more like US$705 (just over 2 months tier).
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Ari Blackthorne said on 5:15PM 4-08-2008
yes, I agree - the two things that really jumped out at me are the "almost instant delivery" of islands. So, It sounds like they are finally, after all these years, automating what should have been automated all along. Hopefully, other services like transfers and renames, repositioning on the grid and so on will also be automated.
The other thing that jumped at me causes me to bite my nails a bit: tier fees. It was promised tier fees will remain consistent through "Q2" and 'reevaluated' in "Q3".
That can mean one of three things: They go up, down or remain the same. Hopefully they won't be going UP to make up loss in the original orders. Then it's possible they will go down as they see the more islands/tiers paid brings in more money per server.
Hard to say what will happen. My own sim pays for itself - just barely. I don't run it for a business, I do it for fun. Since my tier rates are so low - if Linden raises the monthly cost of estates, I'll have to raise my own tier rates. On the other hand, I've really been thinking about adding another island to my estate. This development makes it that much more tempting.
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