It seems there is to be some kind of an announcement by Linden Lab at the end of the fith birthday celebrations of Second Life (that would be July 7). On Dusan’s Writer Metaverse I read about a shocking discovery:
The following is embedded in the source code of a blank page:
“placeholer page for XBOX, PS3, and iPhone versions of client when they launch next real soon now”
I went to have a look for myself, hours later, and only found ‘placeholder for search’.
Do not despair however. The Metaverse Journal announces that some progress is being made on a mobile client for virtual worlds – Aqros (across). Second Life is the focus of the initial development, with Aqros up to its first beta version.
The source of this information is Dr. Yesha Sivan, who writes about this development on his blog DrYesha.
All observers seem to agree that it is far from certain that Linden Lab is anywhere near a launch of Second Life on game consoles or on let’s say the iPhone. But the idea is interesting of course, just imagine the potential audience. As far as the mobile Second Life is concerned, imagine the effect on the hardcore residents. Allthough premium Second Life accounts shrank in the year to May 2008, total user hours climbed by more than 50 percent. The interpretation by the Reuters journalist in Second Life:
The data suggests that while Second Life is failing to attract to new users, existing customers find the virtual world more engaging than ever, spending ever-greater amounts of time there.
I think that by becoming available on consoles and on mobile phones, this virtual world could attract new users and also make the existing users spend even more hours in-world. As Dusan Writer says: “Fun to dream anyways”.
Roland Legrand
