Linden Lab sold?

If you're a Second Life citizen and haven't heard the news yet that Linden Lab has been sold, I envy your capacity for staying out of the fray for gossip, rumor, and news. 

This tidbit, which came to light a few days ago, has already been the subject of plenty of discussion online (see New World Notes' coverage here) and, understandably, has created a lot of questions that the Linden Lab staffers are scrambling to answer. It has generated a good bit of discussion on social media, too, in groups devoted to SL designers and creators, and I won't recap all of the chatter here—seek that out for yourself if you are so inclined.

From my point of view, Linden Lab has been posturing for this sale for a long time now: increasing fees of all sorts, expanding on features in what seemed like a sudden burst of attention, selling off the albatross that was Sansar, and other steps that now suddenly all make sense. Someone said they even made a statement at one point suggesting they were trying to position for sale, which is refreshing frankness from them.

As to what this means for the future of SL and especially stores/designers, all I have to offer is: I doubt things will get much worse than they are now. Apart from more raised fees, I'm not sure how it could—both because they've said that staffing isn't going to change (so it's the same lot that has been steering the ship already) and because things are fairly miserable for many designers in SL. The conditions that Linden Lab has established are fairly squalid, if you ask me. 

So, try to be optimistic, friends! 


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