Ok, so, this is a shocker! Back in August Linden Lab announced they were expanding to Steam. However, today comes the extremely surprising news that Second Life has expanded to Amazon! I have to say, I didn’t see this coming at all, is Jeff Bezos still an investor in Second Life?
Now to use Amazon for your Second Life purchases you need to link your account:
Link your Amazon account with a new or existing Linden Research account so that you can purchase virtual items on Amazon.com and send them directly to your game.
1. Link
2. Download and Play
3. Equip
Your Amazon account will be linked to a new or existing game account using a secure, shared token
You can download your game, install it, and start playing
Purchase virtual items like currency and upgrades on Amazon.com and use them in your game
Important: When linking, you will be asked to create or sign in to an account for this game. Amazon will not collect your game account’s password. Amazon will not share any of your Amazon.com account information with the game company, including your Amazon.com username, Amazon.com password, credit card information, address, or telephone number.
Linden Research always sounds funkier than Linden Lab to me, although if they were regularly called Linden Research I’d probably find Linden Lab funkier!
I really didn’t see this one coming, what a nifty idea this is, nice work Linden Lab, especially with the account linking initiative. Already there are starter packs that can be purchased, so for example for USD$9.95 you get the following:
Get started with the basic Second Life Starter Vehicle Pack, which includes 1,000 Linden Dollars (virtual currency) and a designer hoverboard. Use your virtual currency to customize your avatar with high-quality clothing or characters, weapons or other enhancements. Show off your moves with a unique hoverboard that lets you skim across land, water or sky.
Obviously this is aimed at recruiting new folk, which is very good but the way this deal has came about has bloody impressed me, well done Linden Lab, nice move and this could be very interesting going forward. I really hope this works out well.
I’m sure there will be concerns about this in some quarters and when I’ve recovered from my shock, I may think of some, but for the time being, I’m bloody impressed! Now, can we get an interactive whiteboard and a book reader in Second Life in return!
Just out of curiosity: Katharine Berry (@KatharineBerry on Twitter) tweeted about it on Dec. 24 – both announcing that SL was on Amazon and that they were selling bundled packs there.
Thanks Rico, so another case of being able to find info from the blogsphere rather than LL.
Exactly, the blogsphere informed us about it before LL did.
Yep… I just discovered this in a twitter feed today. Seems like a good thing so I took advantage of the offer. A friend of mine actually gave me an Amazon.com voucher or something inworld for Christmas. I need to grab that out of my inventory and see how that works.
Interesting, I wonder if Amazon vouchers can be linked to accounts now.
But the promo went unavailable on Amazon. hehe.
Yes there appears to have been a slight flaw with the delivery …. ah well it was a nice try.