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Second Life CEO Walks After Recent Layoffs

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

Thirty-percent of the Second Life team was left go two weeks ago. Now the CEO is stepping down.

Two weeks ago, 30-percent of the workforce behind the virtual realm Second Life was let go due to "reorganization." Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon claimed that the move was to help make Second Life even simpler, more enjoyable, relevant and engaging for consumers. He also said that the staff reduction would enable to company to invest more into bringing "3D to the web" and strengthen profitability.

Based on those claims, it sounds as if Second Life might get an overhaul and branch out, possibly to social networks and mobile apps. It's speculated that the layoffs were due to a lack of interest with the virtual world, a trend the company has apparently been watching for a while. Perhaps then it's no coincidence that Kingdon has decided to walk, leaving his two-year reign as CEO.

In his place will be former CEO and Linden Lab founder Philip Rosedale. Former CFO Bob Komin was also moved up the ladder to fill the COO seat. "This is a big, tough change but one the board of directors and management team deeply believes in," Rosedale said. He tipped a hat to Kingdon's two-year trek into improving the overall stability of Second Life.

"Our thinking as a team is that my returning to the CEO job now can bring a product and technology focus that will help rapidly improve Second Life," Rosendale added. "We need to simplify and focus our product priorities--concentrating all our capabilities on making Second Life easier to use and better for the core experiences that it is delivering today. I think that I can be a great help and a strong leader in that process."

Before he left, Kingdon said that the company needed to bring Second Life to the browser as well as integrate social-networking features. Let's see if the new administration can make that happen.

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borisof007 06/26/2010 12:09 PM
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eehhhh not really surprised here. I haven't heard any major news from Linden Labs in a while.

bin1127 06/26/2010 1:00 AM
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if they get a new lease on life then technically it will be Third Life right?

JOSHSKORN 06/26/2010 1:41 AM
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Anyone actually pay for this game? I don't.

Memoscorp 06/26/2010 1:59 AM
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JOSHSKORN :
Anyone actually pay for this game? I don't.


Some people do and they're making loads of money of it.
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/03/million.html

Anonymous 06/26/2010 2:19 AM
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One thing they really need to fix is the bot problem. They are everywhere.

___________________
Little Lost Linden
http://thebotzone.net

BulkZerker 06/26/2010 4:53 AM
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Or just get the hell off the mainland LLL.

L Labs needs to do one thing, and that's go through all the inventory of user created things, and -anything- that gives out money without outside intervention to control when or who it is given to needs to be dropped. So no more money seats, and to a lesser extent no more cash balls. Remove the automation and you loose the bots that sit there.

Anonymous 06/26/2010 5:06 AM
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I agree. Currently the inworld population statistics include all bots and campers. It is ridiculous. SL needs to be cleaned up.

___________________
Little Lost Linden
http://www.thebotzone.net

dEAne 06/26/2010 11:04 AM
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I haven't heard this but reduction to man power is always common nowadays.

mirazh1976 06/26/2010 2:03 PM
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"Thirty-percent of the Second Life team was left go two weeks ago."

was left go? How about... were let go

The grammar errors on many websites seem to have shot up as of late.
There is something to be said for editing and proof reading.

Anonymous 06/26/2010 3:49 PM
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Yeah, you can even visit the graves of the people that were left go right here:

http://thebotzone.net/2010/06/09/l [...] d-campers/

___________________
Little Lost Linden
http://thebotzone.net

nord_musician 06/26/2010 7:33 PM
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Start coding SL again? Maybe OpenCL.. I don't know but to me SL has many bottlenecks and I dont mean lag nor any other internet issues

lunyone 06/26/2010 8:54 PM
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Quote :"Thirty-percent of the Second Life team was left go two weeks ago."

was left go? How about... were let go

The grammar errors on many websites seem to have shot up as of late.
There is something to be said for editing and proof reading.


I Totally agree with this. This seems to be because of laziness in general and/or just cut and paste and no regards to proof reading.

Little Lost Linden 06/26/2010 11:29 PM
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I think that Second Life is going to really take off this year. With Philip Linden calling the shots and this past week's announcement of COLLADA support for 3D mesh imports. It should be a good year once the layoff's are behind us.

_____________________
Little Lost Linden
http://thebotzone.net

nord_musician 06/27/2010 9:13 PM
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Little Lost Linden :
I think that Second Life is going to really take off this year. With Philip Linden calling the shots and this past week's announcement of COLLADA support for 3D mesh imports. It should be a good year once the layoff's are behind us._____________________Little Lost Lindenhttp://thebotzone.net


where did u read that?

Little Lost Linden 06/28/2010 12:17 PM
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Right here:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2010/06/s [...] llada.html

__________________-__
Little Lost Linden
http://thebotzone.net

kronos_cornelius 06/28/2010 3:12 AM
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I agree that Linden needs to focus on just a couple of good things about Second Life, do them well and make sure the audience understands them. The problem right now is that they want to do too much. I always feel overwhelmed by the amount of controls, setting and choice the program gives. It should instead start with some basic features that get the user interested, and more options would be shown as the users become more advance (or more involved).
I always give Second Life a try about once every six months because I like the idea. But it always scare me away with its complexity and poor graphics.

ajcroteau 06/28/2010 3:36 AM
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Wow could it be the second rate graphics of the game... This game looks like s@#$ and I couldn't bare looking at it for 5 minutes...

Little Lost Linden 06/28/2010 4:57 AM
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What kind of settings were you using aj? Did you have everything maxed? This video shows what will be possible with the new COLLADA mesh import functions of Second Life:

http://thebotzone.net/2010/06/27/c [...] next-wave/

If you get the graphics settings tweaked and you have a good CPU\GPU combo, you should be able to achieve some decent eye candy in Second Life. I know have in the past (without COLLADA). I can only imagine what we'll be able to create once it's released which is coming very soon.

____________________
Little Lost Linden
http://thebotzone.net

nord_musician 06/28/2010 6:33 AM
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I wish someday my advanced rendering options (from the advanced tab) would stay instead of reset when i start the cient again >: (((

Little Lost Linden 06/28/2010 7:42 AM
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nord_musician :
I wish someday my advanced rendering options (from the advanced tab) would stay instead of reset when i start the cient again >: (((



Nord, are you using the Second Life 2.1 Beta Viewer, or an older one? Your rendering options shouldn't be resetting, unless you switch between ver. 1.23 and 2.1 beta too many times.

Also, if you happen to crash after the settings change, that can cause a reset too. Best to change the settings, log out, and then back in to be certain the rendering settings keep. If you haven't d/led the 2.1 beta from last week, it might be your best bet.

_____________________
Little Lost Linden
http://thebotzone.net

Little Lost Linden 06/28/2010 7:46 AM
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Forgot to post the link for the beta. It's right here:

http://thebotzone.net/2010/06/23/t [...] sed-today/

For some reason, I can edit most of my TH posts, but not the ones in this location.

___________________
Little Lost Linden
http://thebotzone.net

Anonymous 07/03/2010 1:50 AM
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good thing m linden is gone..
he had no idea how to make sl the standart.
the opensim fiasco was his first stupid decision..

Little Lost Linden 07/03/2010 2:42 AM
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Yeah, that seems to be a good thing. With Philip back we should see some nice changes. The year is looking much brighter.

Little Lost Linden 08/06/2010 11:31 PM
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Holy Moly!

More layoffs down at Linden Lab!

http://thebotzone.net/2010/08/05/b [...] rl-linden/

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