Second Life CEO stepping down, remaining active in development

13 Comments by Alexander Sliwinski Mar 14th 2008 4:35PM
Filed under: Culture, PC, Business

Linden Lab's CEO Philip Rosedale, the man behind Second Life, told Reuters today that he'll be stepping down from his position and the company will seek someone with more management expertise to replace him. Rosedale will become chairman of the Linden Lab board when a successor is found and he'll stay active at the company in product development and strategy.

Rosedale's replacement will be tasked with regaining the momentum that Second Life once had when it was the hip thing for academics and business journalists to write and talk about. Although nothing is expected to be announced in the next year, Bill Gurley of Bechmark Capital believes the company could go public "at some point in the future."

[Via Massively, GameDaily]

Tags: linden-labs, lindenlabs, philip-rosedale, rosedale, second-life, secondlife

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

ChooChooCharlie: Mar 14th 2008; 4:44PM

I still haven't met single person that has ever played this game. I'm pretty sure at this point that actually no one ever played it - the "academics and business journalists" just wanted you to think someone did.

ChooChooCharlie: Mar 14th 2008; 4:46PM

Wow that was sloppy.

"... met A single person ..."

"... no one ever ACTUALLY played it ..."

whymog: Mar 14th 2008; 4:54PM

I don't know if you could call it a game, although people have certainly made their own games within it.

I'm writing a thesis on Second Life, and I've found it absolutely impossible to do anything productive within the environment. It's the worst 3D interface I've seen in the last ten years - we're talking Trespasser bad. I think it's just kind of a great idea taken from writers like Neal Stephenson and horrendously executed - but for some reason, mainstream media caught on.

I think it needs to be scrapped and rebuilt with the help of a studio that has experience in designing intuitive and useful interfaces.

aaron_k7: Mar 14th 2008; 5:02PM

I remember Trespasser! That game had such cool concepts and yet horrible execution. Just trying to figure out where to go to achieve the objectives was a pain in the arse.

deaftly (Brawl - 1075-0467-4222): Mar 14th 2008; 4:45PM

Its rumored Sony hired to guy to help finish Home.

aaron_k7: Mar 14th 2008; 4:59PM

You beat me to the Home reference, well done.

aaron_k7: Mar 14th 2008; 4:59PM

Prediction: Home on PS3 is going to be the final deathblow to Second Life. There, the match is lit.

ugg.tryptophan: Mar 14th 2008; 5:06PM

i'll play/live second life only when my first life is so awesome and successful i need to have another, in other words...never

Robobagins: Mar 14th 2008; 5:37PM

I remember back about 4 years ago this guy I worked with was big on Second Life. He hailed it as the future of the internet, and even tried to sell the guy who owned the company on buying virtual real estate and setting up a virtual store. Long story short: We didn't. Yay!

JakubK666: Mar 14th 2008; 6:51PM

Second live used to be an interactive chatroom but now 90% of it is porn...you know just like normal internet...or real life.

CubeGuy: Mar 15th 2008; 12:05AM

I've never gotten SL to run at more than 3FPS. Seriously. I can't imagine it looking like that screen shot. Just blobs and forms.

crsh: Mar 15th 2008; 2:46PM

"Rosedale's replacement will be tasked with regaining the momentum that Second Life once had when it was the hip thing for academics and business journalists to write and talk about."

Are we so surprised it was just fluff? Good marketing to make SL appear as the next platform to promote and sell stuff online wasn't going to last; SL is an online community (game or not, however you chose to look at it), it's an online sandbox with some merit, but it doesn't go much further than that. It's all about the iPhone now anyway..

Quick! Somebody put SL on mobile devices for the ultimate online experience! See what I did there? The cycle is anew again.

(I live and breath cynism these days heh)

hvnlysoldr: Mar 30th 2008; 2:55PM

Bow chicka bow wow

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