Linden Lab’s highly successful social experiment Second Life is today celebrating it’s 10th birthday, and what better way to celebrate than announcing to the world that a follow-up to the unique online sandbox is in the works?
According to a statement released by the developer’s New World Notes blog, this new ‘spiritual sequel’ will be “an open world where users have incredible power to create anything they can imagine and content creators are king.” Stopping short of admitting that the new game will be identical to it’s predecessor, Linden expand on the statement and say that “The next generation virtual world will go far beyond what is possible with Second Life, and we don’t want to constrain our development by setting backward compatibility with Second Life as an absolute requirement from the start.”
A fresh start it seems, and may be just the break Linden Lab needs to fully realise their vision of a truly free online world, by bringing in fresh blood and helping to leave behind the old image of Second Life as an online hangout for awkward teenagers and people who obsess a little too much over Sonic The Hedgehog characters, if you know what I mean.
Old timers won’t be left behind though, and Linden lab have made it clear that Second Life’s servers won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. “Second Life has many years ahead of it. And in addition to improvements and new developments specifically for Second Life, we think that much of the work we do for the next generation project will also be beneficial for Second Life.”
A video is expected from the developer soon, which will contain a presentation detailing new features from the game, and hopefully some screenshots and footage to put a face to the name. Keep your eyes peeled for more info.