We are saddened to report that Linden Lab, the owners of the virtual world of Second Life, announced today that they are "restructuring" their operations, including letting go of 30% of their staff (estimated at around 100 people) and closing several offices around the world.
The press release reports that this is part of a larger strategy to " increase focus on the company's consumer business including investments intended to enhance ease of use and participation in its virtual goods marketplace through browser-based and mobile applications." Specifically, Linden Lab plans to "create a browser-based virtual world experience" and "extend the Second Life experience into popular social networks."
Those both sound like nice steps forward for the government, nonprofit and education communities. But overall, this will likely lead to a new wave of pessimism about virtual worlds, similar to when Google's Lively and Metaplace virtual worlds closed their doors. Perhaps even more so, since Second Life is the largest virtual world in the marketplace right now.
What do you think will be the longer term repercussions of this restructuring?
