Despite some complaints, especially from those in the second hand sim market and despite questions about the advertising, the Second Life sim sale seems to have been a success, according that is to ace stat gatherer Tyche “Statto” Shepherd who reports to us from SLuniverse:
“Overall 322 new private regions were added to the grid between Friday and this morning, along with another 50 which returned to the grid, the net effect was to increase the grid to 31248 regions from 30924 with private estates gaining 311 to 24262 . This is about 300 private regions more than would have been expected over the same period if no offer had been active.
Of the 322 new regions, 152 were Full Regions and 43 were Homesteads, the remaining 127 were still closed to public access. The 195 open to public access were owned by 177 different owners, with no single person purchasing more than 3 regions. On investigation some purchases were by the larger estates ,again no more than 3 regions, but 111 of the new owners have no other active holdings. ”
There can be no other explanation for this than the sale, that’s the largest increase in sims for absolutely ages … well ages in Second Life terms, ages in real life terms is a tad longer, but that’s a different issue. There are theories as to why larger land barons don’t seem to have embraced this deal, theories along the lines of they already get deals like this anyway, but it does seem to have caught the attention of people who were thinking about dipping their toes in the water but were put off by the high cost of the setup fee.
This is a short term boost for the land market, although some people argue that the land market is flooded already, you can’t really blame people for seizing the opportunity for getting an extra homestead or their first full sim. I’d have liked another homestead for my RP sim but the announcement was not made in time for me to come up with a sensible business plan to justify that. However as it’s something I ponder, it’s something I may take advantage of if such an offer ever comes up again, or I may not, who knows.
There remain concerns that Linden Lab will run with this kind of offer on a more permanent basis, which would rip the bottom out of the second hand sim market, unless Linden Lab drop their transfer fees, USD$100 transfer fee seems a bit high.
One question I did see asked, but not answered, was whether someone could upgrade a Homestead to a full sim for no setup cost. This may be the next promotion for Linden Lab to try out, people with one or two Homesteads can convert to a full sim for free, some people would takem them up on that offer for sure.
Overall this has given Linden Lab a boost, so in that regard, the marketing people who came up with this promotion should be happy with themselves, whether it leads to long term growth only time will tell.
…Except that the Marketing Dept didn’t really do a good job of err marketing it at all .. the word got out through the channels that work best in SL – WOM and social media.. I am happy with the new homestead I got – it arrived super quick, and was setup in less than 4 hours from ticket being submitted – which kinda proves that 1000 setup fee is a bit naughty and unrealistic.
Fair point, apparently some people received emails about it, I didn’t. I saw about the promotion on Inara Pey’s blog, although I’m sure I would have noticed it on the homepage had I gone there first.
I would imagine these sims are ones that were basically sitting there idle having been returned to LL over the last few months, however permanently scapping the setup fee would be met with protests from people who feel there’s some equity in their sim, although this should fire a warning shot that there probably isn’t.
I would imagine the setup fee is a combo of hardware costs and tier for the first month. Since they seem to have an excess of hardware there would be no need to charge again, they just want to make money off it sitting there in the rack every month.
I’m not sure what you mean when you say “boost for the land market”, the only boost here was in LL pocket. More private regions = more mainland for sale at lower prices.
Mainland has been springing a leak for ages from what I’ve seen, but yes I meant it puts more money in LL’s pocket due to more estate regions being owned, that sort of boost, the real test is how the stats look three or four months from now.