Discussion Thread - Details on the Q2 2008 Island Price Change

I tend to agree with you on this one.

1675/2 is 837.50 USD... we are already most of the way there. 675 USD drop just recently, only 162.50 to go to get to the halfway mark.

With a fairly fluid land market we might even see the average resale cost of a region, between residents, below 837.50 within weeks.

Long term, the only thing that keeps technology prices high is added value and reliability. High fidelity, power door locks, actual uptime without troubles... that kind of thing. We might see some of that come along.

Really it's basic marketting to ensure they get a larger profit.. I can just imagine the eye gleeming at the wool pulled over eyes to cover that really they are getting more money from the users then giving a discount.

just think about it... most people are saying Thank you lindens for the price drop i'm gunna buy a sim now!

before the price drop 100 sims a week (they claim) .. now add in the folks realize it's 650$ cheaper, they can afford 2 sims instead of 1, people who had no interest in one are suddenly going hey maybe i'll get one now that they are so cheap ...

Now add in Tier ... 650 is 2 months tier (well 3 but i'm rounding). so for every single extra sim they are selling due to the "gift" to the users, in 3 months time is generating even more profits into there bank accounts...

Now sure, costs involved ... a good rack mount server with bells and whistles will cost 6000 approximately. They run 4 sims on a server. 2000 loss on that one, 500 per sim, so make it 4 months tier... this gift horse really takes on a whole new look when you do the math.

Surely we're there now, 837.50 plus 295 is more than you'll pay LL for an island. Only going concerns are going to command more.

A lot of people seem to forget that the setup costs of a sim is not so much the hardware costs but rather the R&D and instalation costs, now R&D unlike that of most things we buy is ongoing as development teams work to improve the varius software but with time the costs to install a sim goes down as tools are written to automate the process and that is what drives the costs for LL. As a estate owner I get the setup costs back trough both tier and the sell price of the land itself, before the raw price of a sim was about 7 L$ per sqm but most take a slight loss there and sell around 6 L$ per sqm, now with the new price the raw price of a sim is about 4.2 L$ per sqm, I'm not expecting estate land price to drop much, so instead of taking a slight loss land actualy generates a slight profit meaning the recoup time is reduced a lot in future sims.
If it comes to selling the sims in the end any money that generates is pure profit, afterall the initial setup cost has already been payed back.

I must say that compared to software like autocad or other profesional software the licence cost of a sim is already low, ask any IT department and they'll say that compared to the software costs the hardware costs are peanuts.

Price will continue to go down.

and down but why bother buying these days......the support for them is laughable.

How pissed am I right now.

I place an order on 3/29 to find out I blew an extra 675 I could have used for development.

I am in this for fun, not selling land but actually giving people something to do (get bored with shopping and renting). So I would have dumped the cash back in to create the island..

They knew this was happening why did they not suspend sales saying pending new fee announcement. I would have still bought the sim.

open space. I just bought an Island what the hell I need more land at this point for? It does not help me.

How about a TIER discount say 50% for 2 months. Split the difference of me being 2 days early and them changing.

What about a warning... on the sales site. or a notice since they did not deliver until in April 4 that there will be a service change announced in 5 (count them 5 ) days.

Thumbs down for poor service. Actually the complete lack of consideration for new customers.

This is what will promote failure along with not fixing the clients. Not to mention major outages during this period.. So in reality I could not even do anything for 2 days after delivery.

Poor. Bad form.

Ethos, don't be pissed, get creative.
Openspace sims are very easy to rent out for 100 usd per month, just put an add in the forum or inworld, most people have enough on 3750 prims and don't need the top preformance of a full sim but do like the privatie a private sim gives, add to that that only someone owning a full sim can get a openspace sim and you see why there is a good market to rent them out.
Mine isn't delivered yet and already I have a renter for it.

so it's 16th today

where are the promised changes?

It is only 7am in San Fran. Way early for Lindens to be in the office.

methinks your getting soft

Nope, that is Phil. I would have the buggers start at 5 am like civilized humans.

Good question!

Besides the price of private sims that have been discussed at length by many, LL also made announcements regarding mainland sims. He said they would sell 10 (ten) new sims PER DAY in April and May... So far, we've only seen a couple of sims a day at auction...

Is it because he lied? Is it because he announced something that they didn't have the means to do? Is it because they changed their mind? Who knows? Who cares? Let's just file that under "typical randomly generated Linden yo-yo games".

Otherwise, I'm just re-reading the famous 2 blogs and I just noticed that in the first blog, he was talking about the price of an island while, in the 2nd blog, he was talking about the price of a setup... Perhaps they are finally understanding the principle that misleading advertising and marketing statements are illegal... Or he finally bought a book on PR and started reading it. Who knows? Who cares? Let's just file that under "incomplete and unreliable typical Linden statement".

Have a good day!

Those Europe we increased the price by 16% a few months ago. The excuse was the VAT. Everyone here thought that it was unfair. What do you think the people of the United States about a price increase tax? They like a lot, right? Now prices have fallen in SecondLife, and the whole world is against: what psychiatry all of us live? Maybe SecondLife is a business for some of us, but it is a very bad deal. Just because they depend on a single supplier. Therefore it can not be seen as a good business in the long term, as Frobozz Zorin said. Therefore, if we want to engage economically in the game of SecondLife, it is best to invest and try to recover while we enjoyed. If your money is only in the game of SecondLife is as dependent on the Black Jack in Las Vegas to survive. This is just a game.

Ethos Aeon,

Luck is not on your side.

If you ordered a server from a web hosting company and a few days later, they drop the price. What to do?

Eventually, the setup fee might be the same as a web hosting company. ZERO! It all depend on competition.

Who know Google, Yahoo, MSN might be secretly developing a 3D virtual world like secondlife.

Why hasn't LL started lowering the Mainland sim auction price to $750 yet? I thought Jack said this would take effect immediately...

Well in normal stupid Linden way it seems that the new prices will not start this week. So, that was fun!
We have been planned and worked all week, and then as usual down in the toilet.

Well, the idea of having a region was fun. But for myself it will stay there. No way i support Linden with more money now.

Jesus, they really dont know how to handle things to they

well, I returned my recently purchased island, it has been offline for a few days now. I wonder if I have to wait for the land store to reopen before I get my money back in my account.

Ive read all of the posts on the blog and on this. I am on a limited income and now can afford one of these sims. I would rather be here then on opensim (shivers) This is going to give alot of us the chance to finally be able to have a place to go and live and enjoy sl without having to hit the rock bottom and rent a openspace sim which seem to be having alot of issues and cost out the butt. I know atleast 15 people who within the next 5 months that will be buying 1 or more sims at these prices. Its a good thing and not a bad thing, yes some of you invested when the prices are higher. I am happy with this and will be for the long time coming. Prices go up and go down and there is nothing we can really do but complain and rejoice in these prices. But honestly people Sl is for everybody why complain???

Hmm we are all supposed to feel 40% poorer by today, dammit I don't feel it, hmm brought some more land, that's better, I feel poorer now

I mean, how would everyone feel if tomorrow they started printing and selling L's at 1/2 the current value. Just started dumping millions of L's on the market at 512 L's to the 1 USD.

Wouldn't everyone with L's be upset that thier holdings were de-valued by 50% instantly?

Oh yeah L's aren't real and they own them all and they can do what ever they want right?

Funny they treat them as real.

Imagine all your L's (if you have any) becoming worth 1/2 what they currently are in one fell swoop?

What is the difference in doing that to L's compared to what they did with land?

I don't think there is much difference.

arnt they starting to do this now? they dropping prices of them as we speak........And they are not done yet. Sooner of later EVERYONE will (that wants to own their own island ) the chance to own their own.

Which is why I have never looked at land in SL as an investment. Anything that can be created at the press of a button is likely to become inflated in quantity and deflated in value. Just like the dollar in the U.S. due to the actions of the Fed.

I wonder if you & the other 15 people you know would be happy if they reduce the price again by $650 a month after you buy.

Also wondering why you think the openspace sims are having a lot of issues? I hadn't heard that and I know a lot of people besides myself who have them.

Because they are having issues. LL has been trying to roll out a fix for weeks, but their fix is broken (joke in there somewhere).

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/04/16/rolling-restart-wedthu-april-1516-for-121-server-deploy/

"Changes include security patches, performance improvements for Havok4 (including the issue that “openspace” or “void” sims have with Havok4)"