Quarterly Land Supply and Island Pricing Update
Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 5:25 PM by: Jack LindenAs with my previous quarterly posts, here is an update on land, including supply, average prices, abandoned/defunct land and pricing information relevant to Q2 of 2008.
This is a little later than I’d have liked, mainly due to one of the items, Island Pricing, needing a bit more time to finalize. I’ll come to that part shortly. It’s a long post, so join me after the cut..
Land Supply
The average Mainland price has risen steadily over the first few months of 2008 and now sits at around L$11.5 per meter (with a median price below L$10 per meter). These figures exclude L$0 transactions, group transactions and any that involve Governor Linden such as auctions.
On average around 640,000m are traded between residents each day, with a further 410,000m traded to or from Groups. In total then, that’s around 1,050,000m or 16 regions worth of land traded daily on the Mainland estate.
On private estates, where parcels can also be traded, the average price for the initial sale has stayed steady at around L$3.6 per meter with a daily total traded of approximately 990,000m so slightly less than Mainland.
On the back of these numbers, we therefore intend to increase the supply of Mainland for Q2. During April and into May we will increase supply to at least 10 regions per day. Clearly we will be monitoring the market closely and adjust supply if it is necessary. We have a new continent in the wings, and will be preparing that for auction over the coming weeks.
In addition, we will shortly be dropping the opening auction price for new whole regions to USD$750 from the current start price of USD$1250. That additional supply along with lower auction start price will hopefully encourage more people to take part and keeps some downward pressure on the Mainland price per meter which has been rising recently.
Abandoned/Defunct Land
Land can come back to us in several ways but the two most significant ones are where a resident abandons land they no longer want or when an account is closed or becomes defunct in some way, whilst still owning land. In both cases we investigate, clear the land and recycle it by selling the land at auction.
Coming into 2008 we had a backlog of defunct land so we have been putting a lot of effort into clearing that backlog which improves the Mainland and keeps down the amount of litter. Current numbers show that we have successfully recycled 3,071,056m of land formerly held by closed or defunct accounts in Q1, with a further 700,000m still to work through, most of which are small parcels below 64m in size.
Abandoned land has remained at around the same level, we have recycled it at about the rate it has come back to us so we have more work to do there. Right now we have approximately 950,000m of abandoned land at least some of which was a consequence of the changes to our policy on ad farming (I hope to post some numbers on this soon). Abandoned land tends to be time consuming to process as often it has been abandoned by accident, which has to be investigated.
During Q2 we will continue to aggressively recycle land back onto the market.
Island Pricing
Our new Land Store is moving through testing and will be launched in April, perhaps within a week or two depending on how final testing goes. It will be cross browser compatible and will provide nearly instant delivery of a new island after completing checkout.
For Q2 our Island pricing is changing. New islands will be USD$1000 and this change will go live upon the new Land Store being launched, so before the end of April. Orders placed before the launch will be at the current USD$1675 pricing. Monthly fees will remain the same for Q2.
No doubt there will be lots of questions about how this affects those residents that have ordered islands very recently, and how it affects Openspaces or the Educational pricing. I will follow up with a much more detailed blog post in a day or two, so well before the new Land Store is launched; do please be patient while we get all the information finalised for you.
At the end of Q2 we will review pricing once again and post a similar update including pricing information for Q3.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:35 PM
Didn’t expect the price cuts but I’m hoping you’re right about pushing mainland prices somewhere down to a reasonable level. Any naming plans for the new mainland sections that are coming up?
April 7th, 2008 at 5:35 PM
Does this mean a private estate island will now cost $1000. What is the projected tier fees for this as I am assuming LL will want to make up revenue somehow.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:36 PM
Clarification… I mean land tier fees with the lower prices and beyond Q2 2008.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:38 PM
Wow - is Linden Labs starting to feel the pain they put on all the business owners here????
Or you just trying to kill the rest of us off?
April 7th, 2008 at 5:40 PM
[...] Estate Price Change by LL Quarterly Land Supply and Island Pricing Update « Official Second Life Blog __________________ - Briana Dawson ——————- - Getting frustrated in some discussions? [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 5:41 PM
Oh, wow…You actually mean you are dropping prices for private islands to something like 3 years ago?
/me blinks in amazement.
/me drops back to reality.
Oh, yeah, well…OpenSim will be ready in about 6 months, I can have a whole grid to myself then…and invite all my friends there too.
Thanks; but, no thanks.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:42 PM
Fantastic! Thanks for lowering the entry barrier for new island owners
Now will possibly anyone complain about the REDUCTION in prices?
April 7th, 2008 at 5:43 PM
@Gordon Wendt: Good question, not yet. We’ll give out more info on the new continent closer to it being available.
@RobinMasters: There are no changes to monthly island or mainland maintenance fees for Q2.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:44 PM
Good to see private island prices being reduced. Now let’s see about reducing monthly tiers for those islands back to $195 a month instead of $295 a month.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:45 PM
yeah that’s awesome 1000 $ for private estates but seriously if you now pay 600 $ a month fee just to make the money back somehow then it might not work. Problem some people own already 5 and more Islands, if they like to sell these Estates they need to work with 1000 or even under that price. That’s crap. I hope this is just a short time available like this and Q3 will raise the prices again.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:45 PM
“Now will possibly anyone complain about the REDUCTION in prices?”
of course. because it devalues land parcels on existing private islands greatly.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:48 PM
Johnny no you can’t. Maybe you are interested in the Articles some Papers write about. Or do you think the whole Trademark Story that goes on right now has no meaning ?
Open Sim will never work but belive in it, so long LL owns the rights and force em even under US Law there are no such plans coming up…. good luck with your plan *lol*
April 7th, 2008 at 5:48 PM
I’m glad to hear you’ll be cleaning up some of the abandoned land where ad farms use to be. I’m guessing it’s more than a few and it will be good to see some of those abandoned signs come down. I think placing an emphasis here would be very significant.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:52 PM
Questions: does the $1000 price apply to islands (seems like the case).
Also, how will this affect the pricing of Open Space sims. Will they remain at $500 or will those prices be reduced as well?
April 7th, 2008 at 5:53 PM
With the new $1000 price will the first month’s tier still be included? And also Jack at some point is it possible for you to talk about tier prices after the 2nd Quarter? Thanks.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:54 PM
Thanks for more bad news on top of more bad news that was piled on that stack of doggy doo.
Your going to have existing island owners lock up the support lines now - jeez another thing that will go down.
Phil Linden - got the poseballs to meet me in world.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:57 PM
Agrees with post number 9.
Lets see the tier drop too.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:59 PM
Hello? You just wiped nearly $700 off the value of my investment?
April 7th, 2008 at 5:59 PM
@9,17 I agree it would be nice but as #2 pointed out LL will be taking a hit on this that they will have to make up elsewhere so I doubt they’ll lower the prices to the old level on the tiers… although I guess we can always dream.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:03 PM
@ 18 in 1992 I bought a Mac IIx with 40MB hard drive and a 21″ b/w monitor, 256 grey scale scanner, and a A4 256 grey scale printer with 4 start up programmes, the whole package cost me ÂŁ15,000.00 do you think I should complain of loss of investment too?
April 7th, 2008 at 6:05 PM
What about those of us who shelled out $1675 for an island? (I have 2)
If we want to sell our islands we obviously would have to do it at a huge loss…how about a rebate??
April 7th, 2008 at 6:07 PM
So lets say someone owns 10 island sims. They paid $1675 each for them. That same island will be worth 1000 shortly. Thats a loss of 6750 in land value any way you look at it.
One can only hope to make up on it by purchasing more islands at the 1000 price to make up the loss. Either way this is a very hard pill to swallow and Linden is, in a way, forcing island sim owners to purchase more islands IMO.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:08 PM
@20 Dekka does your Mac IIx still work with modern technology? Your analogy is absurd.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:09 PM
I’m all for price drops, but 50% overnight? And ten mainland regions being dumped a day? It’s way to much of a change all at once. Almost feels like a panic move.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:09 PM
What about all of us that bought and island at the old price of $1,675? Is there any form of indemnification or help considered? Depending on your answer (BTW I don’t expect any answer) I may consider definetely liquidating my business in SL since there is no consideration whatsoever for the customer in your system.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:10 PM
ok,lindenlab,you guys really do your best to make it affordable and pleasant for your customers…..thanks
April 7th, 2008 at 6:10 PM
So now everyone will try and own a sim, there are enough malls, enough clubs, ENOUGH!!!!!!!!! There are too many business people and not enough residents that just want to have a good time… These price droppings are going to put the economy in even worse shape than it already is, people already fighting over traffic and not making money, now with a TON more islands available… and I see your ESTATE owned islands you said are selling for prices around 3.9$L per sq m… Well that is not the case from what I have seen.. I’ve seen 16,000 sq m go for 15k not even joking, everyone who failed their business is trying to get rid of their land!!!
For those new to SL, just enjoy and have a good time. Unless you are a builder or scripter, give us a break and don’t open the next new mall when there are already 20,000 you could be supporting!!! Stop the flood, where’s Noah!!! I think my teeth are floating!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:10 PM
Kat, it could be worse…I just bought my first island 4 days ago.
Does anyone know how I can cancel my order? This is not a good omen.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:10 PM
All I can say is WOW…this does affect a lot of different angles and even though I was not a BIG land owner I’m glad I’m almost rid of most of it….Then I can reinvest…… (Hint…SELL if you can and buy back Low)
April 7th, 2008 at 6:13 PM
I bought an island just a *little* too soon. Hopefully tier won’t rise now so I get hit with the high side of both fees. I certainly wouldn’t cry about getting $675 back. What with the recent crashes, outages, asset server woes, etc etc etc… it would certainly be a good faith gesture.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:13 PM
@28 if it hasn’t been delivered yet I suggest immediately filing a support ticket to have it cancelled and if that doesn’t work refuse payment on you’re cc’s (or paypal’s) end.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:14 PM
Wonderful, so as an owner of 6 sims in 6 months time I could have bought 10 sims or have had an extra $4,050 in my pocket. While over the past 6 months I tolerated the upgrades and intergration to the new viewers, and servers, time down, loss of buisness and revenue. Any more turns in the knife you want to share before I through my computer monitor out the window. If you are going to compare mainland to estate land, then please use apples to apples and leave out the oranges.
How about a little justice? Even Apple, gave the buyers of the Iphone 150 dollar credit towards an in store purchase after the huge price reduction. I wonder what the median refund price would and should be….
April 7th, 2008 at 6:15 PM
[...] Price Adjustments: Private Islands Fall 40% April 8, 2008 — dusanwriter Linden Lab has announced that it’s adjusting land pricing and the volume of Mainland which combined with its previous [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 6:16 PM
For those that sell land the island price reduction is a trap. Less investment by the buyer of private island parcels. easier to walk away. in a rush by ll to grab more profit its as short sighted as employing massive changes to the system on fridays.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:18 PM
O_o, wow…I will be interested….
April 7th, 2008 at 6:18 PM
This news is good news for me as I make terrains for Islands.
I am amazed at how many adlots have been abandoned, will you people at LL allow people in neighbouring parcels to buy the 16SQM adloads with a discounted tier rate to encourage people to clean up the mainland
April 7th, 2008 at 6:20 PM
*makes bomb falling noise*
Boom!!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:20 PM
Wow, thats fantastic… q2 is uhm… now? so my recent investment of over $10k USD is now worth uhm…. bubkiss + a little? How about some long term planning that doesnt wipe out peoples real life assets along the way?
Yea, I’ll survive, but there are plenty who wont. And now that we know how unstable the market is I wonder how many of us will bother with the new low pricing. Whats the plan we should follow to protect our current investment? here, ill lay out the 4 step plan for weathering this storm….
1. raise the sell price to cover the cost of land in month 1.
2. Lower the tier rate to cover the tier, dont worry, can always evict them later when you abandon the land.
3. Rent nothing, sell everything, NOW. renting means anticipating astable environment.
4. Buy nothing. Get the frak out while you still have 2 quarters to rub together.
Awesome, really. Im impressed.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:20 PM
yeah, I just got my island 4 days ago..so now I eat a 700 loss when I could have waited a week? NOT happy
April 7th, 2008 at 6:20 PM
I love this game, and I bust my ass the last few years trying to build what I have. Feels a bit like a slap in the face when you go and devalue what I have worked so hard for. I still love this game with all of my heart but days like this you just give me stress in return for the support I have given you.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:21 PM
Now i’m sure the new Island prices from Q2 comes with new issues and desgreement for those with lots of sims. Of course, it’s good news that Private Islands will be sold at a reaonable price, but then, what about the tiers fee taking a drop?! (too). I m sure this won’t without hiccups!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:21 PM
a slow decrease would have been much smarter on LL’s part so that people could adjust and not get hit all at once.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:23 PM
Price drops are a nice gesture on your part but somehow I read between the lines as it saying.. “Please don’t leave us.. Please, its cheaper now! We made it more affordable. Just forget the fact that tens of thousands have had it with our nonfunctioning world and have banded together in the production of several other GRIDS that will soon all patch together with all the same tools and abilities. Forgive the fact that millions of you gave us the chance in the beginning and stood buy us day after day, year after year suffering from an inept ability to produce a quality product.” Unfortunately as a veteran of the SL world I gave all I can give. Reducing the price of a broken toaster is still no bargain. Its still a broken toaster. Ive invested my money elsewhere as have hundreds of other corporate entities. Give me a full week of stability. To me.. thats something worth marketing. FREE property built on a toxic waste dump is still worthless. Sorry.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:24 PM
Just as I buy an Island, cheers, thank you for that very much appreciated. We’d like to announce by the end of April 98% will cancel their premium account, how would you like that?
Any chance of a refund for pretty much a week of me not being able to do anything? Can’t work on the island for a load of reasons with updates, services, isp being down. Can’t sell land because no one can get on to buy it and if they could they’d be put off by the terrible week we’ve had.
Get a grip.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:28 PM
#28 Soledad. Put in a support ticket to cancel it before it is delivered
This change is similar to the increase in price.. I think in Oct-Nov 2006.
Regions went up from $1280 to $1675 and tier for new regions from $195 to $295.
It will be interesting to see is OpenSpace regions are a quarter of the price of a normal sim or stay at the stated $415
April 7th, 2008 at 6:29 PM
This is not real estate people. There is no investment! You are buying servers for Linden Labs and then paying to use them. Linden Labs is in the server rental business and wants to increase cash flow by lowering intial pricing,just like the cell companies sell you a cheap phone so you will ensure their cash flow. Only difference is they want you to believe it is an investment so you will not abandon it quickly. And the great thing is, they provide the environment, the users are creating all the content so others will be attracted to come and create more content and rent more server space. Kudo’s LL, great business model!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:30 PM
This is the first time i have felt the need to post. I just purchased 2 islands, whose tickets are yet to be worked. I bought them just barely under current market price in order to try to at least minimize loss on sales. I am disabled, I use SL as ameans to occupy my time, I in no way am getting rich, I have yet to ever import 1L out of SL. ANd I am totally flabbergasted. What Little I really hoped to save you have just told me I have lost, and NOT ONLY that I am a fool and a sucker. I for one am truly going to rethink, as I read this i looked back over a few reprots and looked at what I have spent here. Maybe the savings is in leaving SL. A tier break of 50k or something makes more sense it would benefit ALL at once current and future.. BUT no you have found a way to screw those who hace supported you, to attempt to lure others into the mesh….. old adage seems to fit .. BUYER BEWARE!!!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:30 PM
A little over a year ago you told us you had to raise prices from US$1000 to US$1675 now you tell us you are dropping them back down just as steeply. Do you have any idea what you are doing or just throwing darts to pick prices? These sorts of wild swings indicate excessive incompetence.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:31 PM
People, whether you realize it or not, most of you lose your investment anyway if you want to look at it that way.. how you ask? Because of all the tier fees. If you play the game right, you can get your ENTIRE investment back depending on the marketability of your product aka island. Think on it.
Bravo for dropping of prices even though we all know this will not last.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:32 PM
Why would you pay for something like this with SL being in the current state it’s in. Asset suckage is daily… even hourly. It’s ridiculous.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:32 PM
How about cleaning up the mainland and picking up the litter around that griefters have left? DO YOU EVERY REALY ABUSE REPORTS ON THIS SUBJECT ANYMORE! Look if you mean anything you post on this blog! BACK IT UP AND DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:33 PM
Those looking for refunds on their already purchased Islands should not hold their breath.
As Jack stated above: “Orders placed before the launch will be at the current USD$1675 pricing.”
I have a feeling they need every penny of your money right now.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:33 PM
@48 actually I think they’re flipping quarters into glasses of beer marked with various prices on them.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:35 PM
On behalf of my dear neighbor, I would like to address the ruthless method LL handles “Abandoned” land when the problem was really something else. First, she lives in Europe, and for some reason, her account became disabled, I don’t know why. But later, the land, owned by her private group consisting of herself and her alt, soon only had one group member, so the group was automatically disbanded and the land was automatically abandoned. I tried, She tried to reassemble things - myself through concierge support and herself through the Support System, both to no avail. I don’t know why, but LL would not get involved with the problem on behalf of a 3rd party (me) and apparently, she could not do anything from the limited and poor support she was able to receive.
So, after a time the land was put up at auction, for which I paid a dear price on to win, and I held on to it. Later she buys it back from me.
I guess this would be a complaint that LL needs to do a better job at investigation of the “Abandoned” land, especially when it really is not at all, but other account problems make it impossible to save the parcel!
Abandoned land = land the owner does not want, and any contact fails to resolve the issue. != problems with accounts for which “ANOTHER DEPARTMENT” must resolve!
And please, why not have the Other Department that is always blamed for all the Other Problems that are not related to the blogs post a blog with comments on so they may address them?
April 7th, 2008 at 6:35 PM
aw man
my island is still rather new and it hirt hirt hard to come up with that cash
how about a free month or two tier to make up for it !!!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:35 PM
# 46 Wrote “just like the cell companies sell you a cheap phone so you will ensure their cash flow”
The difference is that you get “service” when you buy the cheap phone, you can actually USE IT for something wether its fun or business. Here, all we seem to get is “Out of service”.
Owning land in SL is like having a car with out an engine. I can show you pictures of it, tell you about it, but it doesnt start and we cant go anywhere.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:36 PM
well let’s see if you have been following my relayed posted in other articles ;i.e. - Linden Labs just ran me out of business and Phil don’t have the poseballs to meet me in world ones - I think YOU LINDEN LABS just pissed off the rest of the major business owner in SL -
PHIL DUDE…..you just digging and digging aren’t you
April 7th, 2008 at 6:36 PM
For #9 - I hope they don’t lower tier. THAT will be the deathblow to many because it will become easier for average Joe Avatar to own his own private land and not buy/rent from me. Face it, land rental/tier rates will fluctuate with what LL charges and there will always be someone willing to go just a little over cost - profit would be driven from rental/sales.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:36 PM
[...] Read about it on the SL blog here: http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/04/07/quarterly-land-supply-and-island-pricing-update/ [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 6:37 PM
I think the price drop is great. Hopefully they drop the price of openspace sims, too. I don’t know why people are complaining. Most everyone who owns an island could never get their investment back due to monthly tier fees unless that is they own a successful business. Please drop tier fees too while you’re at it and like the above poster said, clean up the maingrid and make it a nice place to hang out again.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:37 PM
Well, as it seems they do have to cut prices in this extreme manner cause less and less people are willing to pay ANY amount of cash for this splendid example for instability, unpredictability, ignorance of customer wishes and lack of corporate management.
After all we got this winded light and a voice. Hooray on 5 frames per second!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:39 PM
I agree that corporate management sucks as does support. I have been trying in vain to get a support issue taken care of for one year now.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:39 PM
Shocking, way to devalue my assets, thank you very much
April 7th, 2008 at 6:40 PM
“For Q2 our Island pricing is changing. New islands will be USD$1000 and this change will go live upon the new Land Store being launched, so before the end of April. Orders placed before the launch will be at the current USD$1675 pricing. Monthly fees will remain the same for Q2.”
Hole crappola!
~anxiously sits on the edge of his seat awaiting quarter 2 to arrive!~
April 7th, 2008 at 6:42 PM
Moderation - is that an unknown word?
A couple points - of the thousands of islands sold in the past year and a half, every one of those estate owners just saw their investment value decrease 40%, smooth move, piss off the people that are actually paying for Second Life to grow.
Mainland Land prices? those figures are so skewed and incorrect as they do/don’t take into account too many variables, before we were getting figures of 6/m or so for land because they included the 0 L$ and group transactions, now the figures say prices are increasing because they aren’t including those figures, but hmmm wait, a lot of large mainland parcels, and many small are sold by groups, so are those included? And anyone who watches land prices can tell you that if you have watched the 1000 cheapest parcels of mainland for sale, that in the past month prices have been dropping, not rising.
So we go from no sims for months, to 120 new ones a month, now to 300 new ones a month, this is not moderation, nor is it smart business sense. Sure it’s great for new members coming into second life, but new members account for only a small portion of money spent. Then it has to be said that to devalue the investments of the people who spend the majority of money, and pay the tier which is what really keeps LL growing is the worst thing for the economy and morale of current members. I have to wonder what is the real plan here?
Moderation, daily or weekly (not quarterly) monitoring and adjustments of the land flow are what is needed. Keep a stable economy. Make adjustments to spur a slow trend, not a drastic change that negatively impacts a large percentage of the people who have spent not only time and money here, but have built incredible things, created content and poured their hearts and souls into making SL a better place.
This is going to be one of the biggest mistakes LL has made recently, and is going to have severe economic implications. Trying to bring businesses to SL? - a stable economic base and happy members are the way to do it. A economy that bounces all over the place at the whims of LL, and a population that is demoralized due to these ill planned decisions is not the way to grow!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:42 PM
oh and Phil;
I just now trying to sell the 3/4 sim my business was on, you know the one you ran me out off, you just stuck it too me again by killing my land value. My poor hole can take only so much Phil before you get a bomb.
Flee people flee……..
LL will stick it to you also !!!!!!
Renee Faulds (the one who LL ran out of business)
April 7th, 2008 at 6:44 PM
“How soon” will we get a server side settings for these windlight environmental settings?
I want to create a beautiful tropical island! XD
April 7th, 2008 at 6:44 PM
Great so you lower price and devalue the land that the people who helped LL get where they are today get screwed again. Just more proof that all LL cares about is the numbers of the people in game, so they can get corporations and big businees will come in to SL. You just lost me $10,800 usd in land value. How about some refund on time down. Like in the month of March over 180 hours of down time or issues in world that you could not function in world properly. This just shows that for the last 18 months since you raise prices of the island, that you have been raping us the whole time. You should of keep the prices where they were and invested the money into keeping Second Life running properly. Maybe hire a CTO. Ever since you got rid of Cory the world has fallin apart. Feb has 21 issues in 14 days. March had 180+ hours of downtime or no TPing or transactions. April well its started off great so far. Thanks again LL. Keep up the good work.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:44 PM
Thank you LL for screwing the little guy one more time. You have no consideration. WE bought our Island 2 weeks ago and after scrimping and saving to pay the 1675 for this thing, you have crashed us, off lined us, lagged us, and rolled us back so many times my head hurts and now the capper, you are going to take half my investment and flush it down the cyber toilet. unless you are planning on refunding us our 750 plus all the time we couldn’t actually come to our island because it wasn’t here which of course is a joke. You have no forethought or concern for the people who pay your bills. Oh, and how much notice are you going to give us when you up the tier to pay for the cut price. You Suck.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:44 PM
@68
sorry, wrong place to post about the windlight!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:45 PM
its good news? or not
its warrning i think but wanna buy land anyway
April 7th, 2008 at 6:47 PM
Jack do you want to remind us again of how much of the land mass is owned by estate owners as opposed to mainland? How about getting Zee to tell us how much you’ve devalued land by in this reckless move?
You know if islands couldn’t be resold then this would be a fine move, but you’ve just shafted something like 80% of your customers.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:47 PM
@47 (and anyone else with pending tickets) CANCEL YOUR PENDING TICKETS NOW. Let them explain to us how they will deal with recent purchase before replacing any orders, in fact, wait till they have rolled out their new product and then, i hope, explain what next quarters plan is before its upon us. Heres an opportunity to let LL know that there is a cost to not thinking through and taking a careful approach when it affects other peoples money.
@48 this is an investment, or a gamble (bad bet?) at this point. Since Im buying the services (up front fee) and then reselling them over a time for a profit, call it what you will, theyve charged us for future services and then lowered the price so that we cant resell them.
Im interested to see what happens to the 1000’s of new 16k islands that were rolled out over the last month with the full knowledge that they were about to pull the rug out from under every exisitng private island owner within the month.
@LL Seems like your plan is is much better then the 4 step plan I have outlined above… kudos. No wonder there are so many scams in SL, they learn by following your example. Shame on you. This is the worst case of a nefarious business practice I have ever been the victim of.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:48 PM
@2 yep…that $1695 I spent in January sure seems like it hurts my ego/judgement……well, if LL raises tier on new 1000$ islands {as we mite expect} sure hope they dont forget how many of us feel as tho we took it in the shorts by buying at the ‘old price’ and allow us tier reduction till we ‘catch up’
April 7th, 2008 at 6:48 PM
Oh, Awesome ! Do, I believe that the prices of voids will be 250 US$ or something like this, correct ??
Good ! I ordered a void to me and was delivered 3 days ago
April 7th, 2008 at 6:48 PM
GAWD I’l glad I tired down to zero LOL
Well Ms Chung is no longer a millionair LOL but heck now anyone can get way cheap land
Thanks
April 7th, 2008 at 6:49 PM
AND I FREAKING STILL CANT LOG IN
April 7th, 2008 at 6:51 PM
So.. the island i purchased only 3 months ago, i will not even be able to BREAK EVEN on resale ?? Are you trying to make us all just give up and quite? Cause u know what i have just about had enough.. constant game problems that is KILLING my business.. now when i sell.. i will loose AT LEAST $650. I am getting a bit tired of bending over.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:51 PM
@76 I don’t think anyone is weeping for her losses although she can easily buy enough sims at $1000 each to make up the difference so in the end she’ll probably end up losing little to nothing from this.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:51 PM
@ Chaos Mohr
I agree, these are not smooth transitions, Jack Linden can’t quote you the current L$/USD transaction rate accurately yet someone put him in charge millions of other peoples investments. LL knows that large scale changes that aren’t transitioned properly and smoothly always have a negative effect, yet when it comes to land there is very little middle ground. Jack, you cold have done this better.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:52 PM
I Cant Login Either.. WOOT NICE PRODUCT! How much was it to get onboard!!???!!! Gotta get me some of this!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:52 PM
are you kidding ???
Do you refund us 750 us$ for every sim we have bought in the last year or even longer ???
How can an existing land owner resell his land at the price he has bought it ???
Do you have any idea what this will do to the SL economy ????
Philip, I tough you where looking for a new ceo !!
It seem you need him because you have NO idea at all what you are doing !!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:53 PM
Who in their right mind will now couch up $1000 if they now the land will be worth much less a year later? At this pace you will be able to buy an island in about 3 years for about $5
Good thing of Second Life™ showing virtual land totally has no value.
Well I won’t shelf up anymore a monthly fee of $295 + 21% VAT for this nonsense.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:54 PM
what will happen we the 2 sims i have ordered last week and are not delivered yet ???
April 7th, 2008 at 6:54 PM
Regarding Island pricing, I think a better longterm solution would be to reduce the tier to the same level as mainland.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:54 PM
Here’s an idea - Poll the concierge level users, and mainland land owners - these are the people that Pay LL and their employees - and ask them what they think about this BEFORE doing it - treat customers like customers, and let the people’s voice be heard. This makes a lot better business sense then dropping something like this with no warning, and obviously from a lot of the comments here already - seriously ticking people off.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:55 PM
Chaos Mohr, what are you complaining about? You have done great with land sales. recently you made nearly 200% profit on a land sale. The dropping of prices will not ruin the econmy. Furthermore, more new people do spend. Most of SL is new people. Well, it depends on what you consider new people to be. 1.5 years ago SL went from 3-5 K people online to now at 35-65 K people online. These are all new people.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:56 PM
[...] minha alma tá parva…acabámos todos de perder 700 dĂłlares/sim, poizĂ©…vale a pena ler os comentários das pessoas que acabaram de receber ilhas novas. [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 6:56 PM
@65
” I have to wonder what is the real plan here?”
Could it be that they recognise some kind of movement out of SL? Well, by devaluing the islands they surely will keep a lot of those who bought for 1,600 from selling their islands right now and keep them paying tiers.
At the same time they try to get some new island owners in, of course, and the latest software desasters they delivered made a more senseful and more reasonable expanding impossible.
Additionally, there is some serious competition ahead,
But honestly. I don´t think there is a “plan”. I think they lost the last remains of such a “plan” when Phil left. Hmmm…did they EVER EVEN have a general plan?
April 7th, 2008 at 6:58 PM
@82 $650 not $750 if you’re just talking about the difference
@83 My next bet on it spiking up either back the full 650 or part way at the next announcement (ostensibly next quarter) not getting cheaper but I could be wrong.
@84 cancel them if they haven’t been delivered yet and if that works then wait until the price drops, I’m sure you can find something to do with you’re existing islands in the meantime, maybe another voting contest
April 7th, 2008 at 6:58 PM
@ Jack Linden
If the full regions are going for $1000. Does that mean the water sims (low prim sims) are going to be $250 each to buy?
Darling
April 7th, 2008 at 6:59 PM
I think it’s great and am looking forward to the lower prices. Some of us cannot afford 1675 as you know. Most conceirge people are probably relatively new anyway. That’s almost like the USA saying they no longer want immigrants when they are an immigrant nation. No one is losing their investment here. An investment is what you make it.. how you develop it.. etc.. it’s like clay in your hands.. just mold it into what you will within the virtual limitations. Don’t forget tier fee.. that’s part of the investment that most never see again unless they are lucky like Chaos Mohr.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:59 PM
I see it to believe it as they say about dealing with Abandoned/Defunct Land….heard these lies before………
April 7th, 2008 at 7:00 PM
“1.5 years ago SL went from 3-5 K people online to now at 35-65 K people online. These are all new people.”
Yes, true, but where is the quality? Premium account numbers drop steadily, And the “online” metrics do not dffer at all between “active” premiums, free accounts, alts and a HELL full of bots and clones simulating traffic.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:01 PM
I enjoyed buying and selling land for a long time but I have had to stop because the Automated land buying VIA Landbots have killed the once lively land market now its the landbot runners that control the mainland market prices they get all the cheap deals so they can afford to buy every single parcel at bottom market price because they are on a win win situation because their landbots get the deals to pay teir the rest of us have to hold out for a sale and thats the killer as land sales are slowing now
April 7th, 2008 at 7:02 PM
OK. I haven’t read any of this but here’s the big question. When will LL do away with the grandfathered old tier? That’s next isn’t it? That is the only thread of value I have now. I refused to buy new tier sims and this is why. Anyone that bought a new tier sim just had a swift kick in the value butt by LL. The rental market is saturated as it is. It’s hard enough to make tier at 295 as it is. Throw in VAT and forget it. Could you announce who your economist is please? And how in the world can you justify open space prices as you just announced them? Are you going to open that up to the general public in another month. I like SL…I really do. But you honestly are making frequent and huge alterations of pricing here that firmly kick anyone trying to do something with their land to recoup the cost squarely in the teeth. How can any of us form a coherent business plan when LL obviously can’t?
April 7th, 2008 at 7:03 PM
Has anyone at LL ever heard of the concept that steady growth can be healthy? Pffffft, I can’t even get my panties to rez on a brand new island that was placed on the grid the other day.
What makes you think that we won’t team up and start telling you the rules? We are, btw, your investors.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:04 PM
[...] Linden in his quarterly blog posting just dumped a HUGE bombshell on private sim pricing. Island [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 7:04 PM
well atleast not until 2009 tiers wil stay the same.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:04 PM
$@%&@#&#^%!!!!!
I just bought my 9th sim today for full price!!!!
Thanks Alot LL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 7th, 2008 at 7:05 PM
as you have all noticed not a single, not a one Linden is responding to this post. Typical
Hey Phil, I have some boxing clothes - meet you at my old business property on Odessa Enthralling ( you know the land you ran me out of business on) I meet you there if you have the poseballs to even face somebody you run out of business?
Phil I will be waiting
Renee
P.S. Don’t be afraid to hit me, I a pretty tough Wyoming cowgirl and I know you on your butt dude!
April 7th, 2008 at 7:05 PM
The following is from the comments section I have put into a ticket for my two islands. If LL wants to make things fair for all the existing owners, why not try the following:
As I have discussed with Kyle Linden in a chat concerning this issue, here are some suggestions for fair compensation for those of us who have been on the $295 tier and $1675 setup as well as the $195 tier and $1250 setup.
First off, Give those island owners credit equal to the amount each has invested in the setup fee, to bring them back in line with the new island pricing. For example, the $1675 setup would receive a credit of $675 per island.
Secondly, Set the island tiers down to $195 a month, and issue the people on the $295 a month tier $100 in credit per month tier was collected. For example, an island running for 12 months on the $295 tier would receive back in credit $1200. (12 * $100 = $1200)
Third, For those of us who have been here over a year, or whom credit is going to be over $1000, offer a free island setup or upgrade from open space to full island at the tier of $195. I know personally, I have 4 open source islands on order. It would be nice if I could upgrade 1 or 2 to full sims with the credit that should be issued.
I have other suggestions as well, but for me, and I bet a majority of the othe risland owners, these would seem like a fair compramise.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:06 PM
This is good news although I’d like to see openspaces sims offered independently of current estate ownership and at a price relative to the new price of Islands.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:07 PM
This really is not a good news for the people who have invested thousands of dollars to purchase YOUR private islands.
I guess this really is a ticket to find alternate virtual worlds because you people really don’t know how to run a business and how to keep you clients happy.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:07 PM
GUYSS….. GET OUT OF ANY DEAL WITH LINDENLAB NOW! That is what i am going to do sell everything and go on a free account. Let THEM feel the pinch once!
April 7th, 2008 at 7:08 PM
Wow. Just wow. Not only are all of the people who purchased islands previously getting screwed, add to that the ones who had to pay VAT on top of that… LL, we can appreciate that you are looking for ways to make things better, but the BEST way to do that in my opinion would be to rework the grid, find out where the problems are, fix them, and let us have one entire day (or more!!) where SL is functioning completely. THEN and only then worry about pricing of islands and bringing more people into SL. We are all here because we keep hoping for a brighter day. Here’s to hoping the sun appears over the horizon again soon….
April 7th, 2008 at 7:08 PM
How about giving current island owners a $750 credit toward purchasing another island?
April 7th, 2008 at 7:09 PM
Not only have businesses suffered to due to the most recent grid problems (or should I say “continuing”), now estate owners get another hit with an instant devaluation of assets and and an even longer ROI.
Obviously, LL is going for the volume approach by reducing island entry fees and keeping tier unchanged. This could have been managed much better with less of an economic impact. LL needs to hire effective management with real world business experience instead of gaming.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:13 PM
You know Jack if you really want to invigorate the economy, lower tier fees! Then you wouldn’t be screwing over your estate owners.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:14 PM
Wow - I can buy a new Iphone with more features than mine for less than I bought mine for last year -
My real life home is worth less than it was a few years ago when I bought it because there was a housing boom and extremely low interest - Whoa is me
Geez people - this stuff happens - get over it
Can I have some cheese to go with all this whine? Hey maybe you could sell out as many have suggested and some of us can buy you used sim for 650?
Let’s not have a knee jerk reaction - these things happen - compensation is not due to anyone caveat emptor
April 7th, 2008 at 7:14 PM
Buying land “as an investment” has always been a gamble, whether in RL or SL. If you actually bought your land intending to USE IT, and not just to flip it for a fast profit, you have lost nothing. You still have the same business model and same monthly costs to deal with as before. All that has changed is the start-up cost for adding to your ‘empire’. If you bought it to carve up and resell for a fast buck, then yeah, you’re screwed.
If you look at the long-term picture, the up-front cost of obtaining a whole sim is nothing compared to the long-term cost of maintaining it. 12 months of tier at $295 USD is #3,540, or more than twice the old purchase price for the sim. Lowering the buy-in cost will allow more people to get sims. But they still need to pony up over three and a half grand a year to keep them, just like you do. So their rent on parcels won’t be that much different than yours. They can just pay back their initial investment faster.
I really hope this means OpenSpaces sims will also decrease in price soon. That might bring one within my range.
But if what they are worried about is “the competition”, and having OpenSims or other alernatices cutting into their