Linden Lab, the company that owns and operates Second Life, has announced today that they’re laying off 30 percent of their staff, labeling the move as “restructuring” and “reconfiguring”.
Their new strategy is to make Second Life more of a browser based experience, like Farmville, eliminating the requirement for users to download software. Second Life will also be available on “social networks” (basically they’re building a Facebook app), so it becomes more social.
Although their new strategy is three years late, it probably not too late. As of August 2008, Second Life had approximately one million active Residents with 40-60 concurrent users at any given time. Linden Lab was founded in 1999 and they’ve raised $19 million to date, so it seems a bit surprising that its taken them this long to make the switch to social gaming. According to their press release, since inception Second Life Residents have logged more than one billion user hours and generated more than $1 billion in user-to-user transactions.
It will be interesting to see their browser based version of Second Life and if the move can revive the business.
