Price Increase for Islands...Poor Timing?

Lol Raymond you are probably right about that.

A lot of it seems to be sour grapes I think. People chose to buy their island, have been making money from them all this time when you could not get an island for $1000 dollars but now want $695 back for that "loss of investment". Who says it is an investment anyway? Perhaps LL sees that cost as a price for the option to own an Island? Much like when you "buy" land on an island now which many say is really only the option to rent the land and not really a purchase price?

I applaud them for trying but I don't think LL will be going for it somehow.

No business reduces prices because their costs go down. (Sure, they'll SAY that's why they're doing it, but they're lying.) They are reducing the prices either because they're bracing for competition, or because people aren't buying as many sims as they'd like. The new Land Store sounds like it's completely automated, which will reduce their support costs, but not by enough to offset the huge cut in private island pricing. They're worried about something, though, I'm sure.

I'm curious what (if anything) they'll do about Openspace pricing...

Those are the people who aren't going to be in business for very long.

Good news for people who want to buy islands

Bad news for people who own islands and were thinking of selling.

I think its a great move--but not as significant as one might think. Frankly, I would rather see $2000 islands and $75 tier for them. The true cost is all about the tier. Maybe the detailed blog announcement will reveal a change--that would be exciting.

Second Life is simply too expensive for the general public. It's filled its current niche quite well but its in danger. The lindens are going to have to cut more than just purchase prices--ultimately tier will need to be reduced as well.

Too much competition waiting. . .

Well I have one island but there's no way I'd buy another after seeing this. So in my case bad news for those who own islands and bad news for those who want to buy islands.

It is the tier costs as ever that will be the deciding factor of whether this just adds some competition between large landholders or truly means that the masses get to have affordable lands and destroys the current large land holders businesses.

There are a category of people who could probably afford a one time purchase if the tier costs were affordable by them. I know this because I am one of them. Even at $195/mo most people will not take this up en masse. I personally could go to $75/mo for an island and would probably buy an Open Space sim if you didnt need to have an island first. If that was a full island then I would be woot'ing for sure however I don't think we will see LL bring down tier prices that much though.

I am also interested to know - if you have an island and cannot afford it anymore - your circumstances change and you cannot find a buyer - can you just say to LL that you are abandoning it and give it up or are you bound to the tier costs until you sell it or give it away to a resident? I am thinking about should a whole market collapse here. What contract do you sign when getting and island?

Not really you still have your island that most people cannot afford and can choose to use that to recoup your "investment" costs.

Thing is Islands used to be considered a "safe investment" because the value never went down.

Now with such a DRASTIC price cut, that has changed.

I don't think so. See http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/02/13/there-is-no-class-6/


....though it could well be that what they pay for a class 5 server has come down a lot.



It's not a small price cut but I dunno that I'd call it DRASTIC. It's less than 2 months tier.


Why wouldn't you buy another, if you had some reason to? Do you think the startup cost will drop again?

It's not a small price cut but I dunno that I'd call it DRASTIC. It's less than 2 months tier.

Sure I get that - it was "considered", however that is a shaky premise to rely on in business surely?

shaky or not, I've heard many island owners say it.

Any investment in SL is a big risk right now, IMO.

I do not doubt you Colette.

EDIT: I agree with you too Raymond, however there are way to minimise some of the risks I think - relying your island's resell worth to remain the same is not one of them is all.

People figured out their "wealth" by how much their islands would cost to replace ..

Hmm Anshe just "lost" $300,000+

Absolutely, but when the people who run the show reduce your investment by 40% rather than the market itself, that is what we term in the UK "A kick in the bollocks"

Where is it written that an island is worth or should be worth the purchase price after purchase? Many things in life are not. There are no guarantees for mainland either.

lol that is funny - perhaps she will have to work harder to recoup that? After all isnt that the point once the island has been bought ? To recoup the initial costs? If you have recouped your initial costs then then this drop is not costing the island owner any money.

Where did you see that about Anshe, Collette?

Bladder is under control - for now

There are definitely implications on both sides of the fence for me. Rather than have a kneejerk reaction, I'm going to do something totally zany, and watch and wait before I speak.

Wild and crazy unexpected move, I know! The not speaking right away, that is. Right. Roight.

Raymond's got some insight all right, but within maybe an openspace region or two Caledon is slated for four more full regions - the economy and my continued good health willing - and that's it.

The Caledon masterplan, which I had held close for a long time and finally released to the public in Oct 07, remains unchanged. For the insatiably curious, it is downstairs in the west wing of the Guvnah's mansion right now.

Will its limited size push up demand for Caledon land? That's a question for all of you to answer, not me.

As for crown colonies, well... I'm reading the blog and watching the market just like everybody else - I learned about this when everyone else did.

Gee, am I losing my FIC touch? grins...

Nobody is saying it's worth the purchase price, but it shouldn't be worth 40% less.

As far as I know Anshe still requires up-front payment for the land so the money one sim brings in simply pays for the purchase price of the next sim. She didn't loose anything since none of her own money is used to buy new sims, her "net worth" did go down though, true.

If anything, it's her tenants that loose out since this move means they'll have to sell their land for far less than they paid for it to compete with Anshe's prices on her new sims.

My point is that if you have recouped your initial purchase price from running your island as a business then you have lost nothing - the island isn't 40% less - you got your $1695 back some time ago. Sure your potential profit from selling the island now has decreased but that is not a reason to worry and why should potential profits guaranteed to be anything? Nothing else is.

Yes, just another reason not to 'buy' on an estate.

As Ray says, could be in response to bad current revenue numbers... or could be in anticipation of serious sim-hosting competition.

Also... if they get serious about cleaning up the Mainland, the previous Island pricing may have been unsustainable, even without the drop in the Mainland auction floor and the rapid planned expansion of the Mainland. (Of course to me--a Mainland geek--aggressively expanding and improving Mainland seems the best strategic move for LL in preparation for competition.)