{"id":3759,"date":"2014-03-08T20:01:21","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T20:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=3759"},"modified":"2014-03-08T20:01:21","modified_gmt":"2014-03-08T20:01:21","slug":"linden-lab-say-no-to-sale-of-ip-and-codebase-for-versu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=3759","title":{"rendered":"Linden Lab Say No To Sale Of IP And Codebase For Versu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inara Pey has reported that\u00a0Lab says \u201cno\u201d to an independent future for Versu<\/a>. Inara’s blog post links to a blog post from Emily Short<\/a>, who had been trying to negotiate a deal to buy the IP and codebase for Versu after Linden Lab announced they would no longer be supporting the project<\/a>\u00a0:<\/p>\n

After careful consideration, Linden Lab has decided to cease development and support for dio, Versu, and Creatorverse. We\u2019re grateful for those who took the time to experiment with these products in their early days, but ultimately we have determined that due to a number of factors, we and our customers will be best served by focusing our efforts on continuing to provide exceptional service and compelling new experiences for the users of our other products.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So Linden Lab don’t see a future for the project, but like the boy with the ball, they’ve decided to take their ball home instead of letting someone else play with it. Emily had previously tried to convince Linden Lab to Open Source the project, which Linden Lab refused to do.<\/p>\n

Then Emily tried to negotiate a deal to buy the IP and codebase, which as Emily announced on her blog, ended up with a no :<\/p>\n

So for those who were curious, Linden has now given me a definite no about selling me the codebase and IP.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However there is another pain point in all of this for Emily. Blood and Laurels, which had just been completed has obviously now been shelved, but as Emily explains in the comments, Linden Lab own the text :<\/p>\n

Blood and Laurels can\u2019t meaningfully be rewritten \u2014 they own all the text and images as well as the engine it runs on. I was working on that story concept, on and off, for nearly 15 years, so having finally finished it and been really excited about it, only to have it vanish into ether, makes me sad. Still, on a total scale of possible bad things to have happen to one, it\u2019s not very far along the bad thing spectrum. So we go on to the next.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Emily puts on quite a brave face there, but that must hurt. So why would Linden Lab do this? Why would they refuse to release something they have no interest in? There are a variety of reasons, they may think it’s worth more than Emily can offer them, which may sound strange for a product they appear to have no use for, but Tateru Nino explains it rather well in the comments of Emily’s blog post:<\/p>\n

Whether it gets used or not, it represents an asset (that is value) on the books \u2013 which has a variety of uses for a corporation. It is regrettable, because I really wanted to see Versu go somewhere.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s the thing with the business world, sometimes a business has to play the evil empire role and lots of businesses play this role from time to time. Versu may not be going anywhere but it does have value. Whereas it seems cruel for Linden Lab to do this, they will have their reasons for doing so.<\/p>\n

I do find this all extremely disappointing. Versu was a product I was very much looking forward to seeing, thinking that it will be shelved and become dusty when it has so much potential really is a crying shame but it does now look like it has reached the end of the road.<\/p>\n

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