In Second Life, They finally decided to Lower their land prices, a HUGE Shock to EVERYONE! If you visit the blog at http:///www.blog.secondlife.com you can read the 150 Comments on this recent post, of almost EVERYONE AGAINST THE PRICE DROP! How can you complain? The one thing everyone wanted when they raised prices, Was to lower the prices. Now that they do it, They want them raised, HOW Do you Not want something to be cheaper! I Personally LOVE this change, and i will be ordering a new island once these new prices are out, However my island will be strictly a Play Island, This is a good thing though, Im not having to invest so much in to a Play Island. This is very shocking, Its shocking that they decided to lower the prices, But its also shocking that everyone is mad!
Linden Labs are Lowering to $1,000.00 Upfront and $295.00 a month, So the monthly prices do not change, But the upfront prices are AWESOME! They also lowered the Mainland Auction Prices from $1,250.00 to $750.00 so, i say woot for the change!
On another note, To Crush the Dreams and hopes of my friend Malifico Bade. He recently purchased Beau Monde for $1,675.00 USD and now they lower the prices. When this blog post was released tonight, He was so mad, he dropped the call and went to bed. But again, Personally i believe this change is for the better.
Feel Free to comment on this post, I would LOVE to hear what everyone has to say on this! You have my opinion, And i do believe that my comments do not cut off at 150 Like Linden Labs.
Here is the Origonal Post by Jack Linden
As with my previous quarterly posts, here is an update on land, including supply, average prices, abandoned/defunct land and pricing information relevant to Q2 of 2008.
This is a little later than I’d have liked, mainly due to one of the items, Island Pricing, needing a bit more time to finalize. I’ll come to that part shortly. It’s a long post, so join me after the cut..
Land Supply
The average Mainland price has risen steadily over the first few months of 2008 and now sits at around L$11.5 per meter (with a median price below L$10 per meter). These figures exclude L$0 transactions, group transactions and any that involve Governor Linden such as auctions.
On average around 640,000m are traded between residents each day, with a further 410,000m traded to or from Groups. In total then, that’s around 1,050,000m or 16 regions worth of land traded daily on the Mainland estate.
On private estates, where parcels can also be traded, the average price for the initial sale has stayed steady at around L$3.6 per meter with a daily total traded of approximately 990,000m so slightly less than Mainland.
On the back of these numbers, we therefore intend to increase the supply of Mainland for Q2. During April and into May we will increase supply to at least 10 regions per day. Clearly we will be monitoring the market closely and adjust supply if it is necessary. We have a new continent in the wings, and will be preparing that for auction over the coming weeks.
In addition, we will shortly be dropping the opening auction price for new whole regions to USD$750 from the current start price of USD$1250. That additional supply along with lower auction start price will hopefully encourage more people to take part and keeps some downward pressure on the Mainland price per meter which has been rising recently.
Abandoned/Defunct Land
Land can come back to us in several ways but the two most significant ones are where a resident abandons land they no longer want or when an account is closed or becomes defunct in some way, whilst still owning land. In both cases we investigate, clear the land and recycle it by selling the land at auction.
Coming into 2008 we had a backlog of defunct land so we have been putting a lot of effort into clearing that backlog which improves the Mainland and keeps down the amount of litter. Current numbers show that we have successfully recycled 3,071,056m of land formerly held by closed or defunct accounts in Q1, with a further 700,000m still to work through, most of which are small parcels below 64m in size.
Abandoned land has remained at around the same level, we have recycled it at about the rate it has come back to us so we have more work to do there. Right now we have approximately 950,000m of abandoned land at least some of which was a consequence of the changes to our policy on ad farming (I hope to post some numbers on this soon). Abandoned land tends to be time consuming to process as often it has been abandoned by accident, which has to be investigated.
During Q2 we will continue to aggressively recycle land back onto the market.
Island Pricing
Our new Land Store is moving through testing and will be launched in April, perhaps within a week or two depending on how final testing goes. It will be cross browser compatible and will provide nearly instant delivery of a new island after completing checkout.
For Q2 our Island pricing is changing. New islands will be USD$1000 and this change will go live upon the new Land Store being launched, so before the end of April. Orders placed before the launch will be at the current USD$1675 pricing. Monthly fees will remain the same for Q2.
No doubt there will be lots of questions about how this affects those residents that have ordered islands very recently, and how it affects Openspaces or the Educational pricing. I will follow up with a much more detailed blog post in a day or two, so well before the new Land Store is launched; do please be patient while we get all the information finalised for you.
At the end of Q2 we will review pricing once again and post a similar update including pricing information for Q3.
But what i find funny, Is people posting comments to the blog on Second Life.com are talking about LL Wiping $700.00 off their “investment” and that LL are Ruining their “Lives” but they dont realize its JUST A GAME!!!
I Enjoyed this one here
Sarah Nerd Says:
April 7th, 2008 at 6:20 PMI love this game, and I bust my ass the last few years trying to build what I have. Feels a bit like a slap in the face when you go and devalue what I have worked so hard for. I still love this game with all of my heart but days like this you just give me stress in return for the support I have given you.
(in no way do i mean anything by posting this quote, I just think its kinda funny how people Rely on SL as their “Lives” Much like Ming Chen)
But i HAVE to agree with this Dude!
Darek Deluca Says:
April 7th, 2008 at 6:29 PMThis is not real estate people. There is no investment! You are buying servers for Linden Labs and then paying to use them. Linden Labs is in the server rental business and wants to increase cash flow by lowering intial pricing,just like the cell companies sell you a cheap phone so you will ensure their cash flow. Only difference is they want you to believe it is an investment so you will not abandon it quickly. And the great thing is, they provide the environment, the users are creating all the content so others will be attracted to come and create more content and rent more server space. Kudo’s LL, great business model!
And there was another referencing to the Open Grid, And how they would be moving from SL to there. But encase you haven’t noticed, Open Grid SUCKS! So anyways, we shall see where this goes, Even though im all for it, This dosent mean i don’t want to hear what you have to say, So free free to leave a comment.
Yea, Change is good, But i can see how people who just got ripped can be mad! I WOULD have been one of those people had i not sold my island. So yea i feel for you, But personally i am glad the change happened.
2 Responses
If all your buying is hosting then why do land prices vary all over the grid? Tell Anshe Chung that it’s just a game, hell tell Sarah Nerd it’s just a game. These people are making real life income, to you it’s a game, to them it’s not.
Your friend Malifico Bade is right to be angry, it’s not exactly small change.
People value land differently, but it’s quite clear if land was viewed by all as merely hosting space then all land parcels would be worth pretty much the same price for the same amount of sims. Go check out how much waterfront land is worth on the mainland as opposed to inland.
Hopefully your friend will receive some compensation if he’s only just purchased his sim, it’s bad business to make customers feel like they have purchased a lame duck. Anyone who has paid $1675 for an island and still own has saw their assets devalued, no matter how you try and dress it up as a positive move.
Yes i can see how you would be mad, Current island owners are screwed, New islands owners not so, I assume had i kept one of my 3 islands then i would be mad. I know its a lot of money, And a lot of bal de bla, But in all truthness its just servers… But you have to take in to consideration, Im fresh off the Teen Grid, And there, They don’t really jack the prices because its waterfront. Same price for the entire island. So i am sure the economy’s are different.