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Second Life developer Linden Lab picks new CEO, Ebbe Altberg
Linden Lab announced Ebbe Altberg as its new CEO today. He joins the company following former CEO Rod Humble's departure late last week. Altberg was previously COO of professional networking company BranchOut and SVP of Media Products for Yahoo. Linden Lab is best known for developing Second Life, a Sims-like online virtual world for PC, Mac and Linux that first launched in June 2003. It also acquired the indie-focused game distribution platform Desura in July 2013. [Image: Linden Lab]
Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble departs Second Life developer
Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble has parted ways with the Second Life developer. Humble, who had been with Linden Labs for three years, announced his departure on Facebook last week, GamesIndustry International reports. "It's been a great 3 years! All my thanks to my colleagues at Linden Lab and our wonderful customers I wish you the very best for the future and continued success!" Humble's post revealed he would be exiting the company to start a new operation focused on making "Art, Entertainment and unusual things." After three years working on Second Life, we're terrified as to what Humble's idea of what an "unusual thing" may be. Humble was the Executive Vice President of the EA Play label at Electronic Arts, prior to his stint with San Francisco-based developer Linden Labs. Humble worked on such games as The Sims 3 and, while at Sony Online, EverQuest.
Second Life CEO Rod Humble leaves Linden Lab
Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab for the past three years, officially announced via Facebook that he has left the company. Humble has worked on both The Sims and EverQuest, pretty much exactly the two games that you would think could be mashed together into Second Life. Linden Lab has not issued a statement about Humble's replacement at this time. In a statement on the move, Humble wished his former coworkers and customers the best of fortunes, stating that he was moving on to form a startup company to make "art, entertainment, and unusual things." Whether or not this will be another startup in the online gaming space or something entirely different remains to be seen.
Linden Lab preps four releases for November
The boys and girls of Linden Lab are expanding their operation. Rapidly expanding, as it turns out. The Second Life studio announced that it has not one, not two, not three, but four titles scheduled for release in November. We've already heard about the first, which is the Minecraft-wannabe Patterns, but the others are just now being revealed. The second is the iPad-only (for now) Creatorverse, which allows users to draw shapes, have them interact via physics, and then share them on the cloud. The final two are Dio, a room creator, and Versu, a storytelling toolset. Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble affirmed that Second Life will remain important to the studio, but it will need to make room for all of the new children coming into the family.
Free for All: Second Life, the little 75 million-dollar engine that could
Do not call Second Life a game. If you find yourself in the position of describing the game at all publicly, be prepared to be corrected: Second Life is not a game; it's a world. Let me amend that: Second Life is an experience, a world, a game, or whatever the players, residents, and consumers want to call it. In fact, the Linden Lab baby is whatever you want to make of it, and I have seen many, many sides of it over the last eight years since I joined the experience. Don't worry; this column will not be a fanboy rehash of the successes of Second Life and will not be a recount of my favorite memories. Instead, we'll focus on facts to prove just how incredible this latest ninth anniversary is.
Linden Lab's Second Life 'extremely profitable,' company looking to expand
Second Life has dropped out of the limelight in recent years, but if a new piece at GamesIndustry.biz is on the mark, the long-running virtual world may be primed for something of a renaissance. Former Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon vacated the throne in June 2010, and veteran developer Rod Humble took over at the beginning of 2011. Since then, the EverQuest and The Sims veteran has been working hard to bring a bit of structure to Second Life's virtual sprawl, and in the process, reinvigorate what was one of the first MMORPG media darlings. "I was taken aback by just how big Second Life was," Humble says. "To be honest, it had fallen off my radar until I got the call offering me the position. And I looked at their numbers; this is a world that has got 1 million people logging in every month, generating well in excess of $75 million a year -- it's extremely profitable." Humble spent much of 2011 refining the product, and everything from the sign-up process to the UI to world transportation received some attention. The result was a 40 percent uptick in new users, and now Humble is bent on expanding Linden Lab's offerings beyond Second Life. "Linden Lab has been very successful with one innovative product, but I want to stretch the company out again, to make it a really exciting place where people can't wait to find out about the next unusual title we're going to release," he said.
The Game Archaeologist's excellent EverQuest Online Adventures: The highlights
In the pantheon of Sony Online Entertainment's flagship EverQuest franchise, there is a whole family of MMOs gathered around the table every evening. There's Papa EverQuest, looking a little wrinkled and worn but also radiating fame and authority. Next to him is Mama EverQuest II, a powerful matron of entertainment if there ever was one. They look proudly down the table at a bassinet where Baby EverQuest Next lies, cooing as it grows into the future generation of this family. Then, in the next room over is a cabinet. The cabinet is locked. Inside that cabinet is a weird abnormality that certainly looks like a member of the family, but he hasn't seen the light of day in quite some time. He subsists on the scraps of an aging console and the fading loyalty of fans, hoping against odds that one day he'll be allowed out for a stroll or something. His name is Cousin EverQuest Online Adventures, the EQ MMO nobody mentions. EQOA is a strange abnormality in SOE's lineup. While it was one of the very first console MMOs and heir to the EverQuest name, it was quickly eclipsed in both areas by other games and left alone. Yet, against all odds, it continues to operate on the PlayStation 2, eight years and counting since its debut. This month the Game Archaeologist will crack open that cabinet and give this interesting MMO a few weeks of attention and care. I think it's about time, don't you?
Rod Humble details experimentation and innovation at Linden Lab
Linden Lab's popular Second Life is known for being one of the more creative, outside-the-box titles available on the market. That tradition carries over into Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble's newest initiative, which he says "puts the 'lab' in Linden Lab." Rather than having his developers spend all their time between projects working on bug-fixes, Humble has begun a rapid-prototyping R&D initiative. For all the information on this new project, head on over to Gamasutra and check out the full feature.
Second Life's CEO Rod Humble talks anniversaries
Second Life recently hit a milestone in the MMORPG industry: eight years in service. This is ancient in MMO terms, and yet the game has shown continued growth. How would you explain such success, especially when the game... er, world... is such an enigma? Even the players are not sure how to describe it. Well, we called out the big guns and sat down with Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab, the maker of Second Life. He was kind enough to not only do the interview but allow us to embed the audio in the article for you to hear! Don't worry; we've also written up much of what was said, so you can choose to listen, read, or both! Click past the cut and let's get right to the interview with Rod as he talks about success, explaining Second Life and some of the surprises he's met with along the way.
'The Incompetent Perfectionist': Inside SpyParty dev Chris Hecker's process
"When you're trying to do that perfect jewel, there's a kind of bar you have to hit. People argue that Jon [Blow, developer of Braid] could've shipped with the programmer art -- I mean, it won the IGF design competition. And I don't think so. I think the game design was the most important part, but the whole package came together so well -- the way David [Hellman's] art looked with the thing, and the .... I think that there's a certain quality bar that is the expression of what you're trying to do, and you kind of have to hit that." SpyParty developer Chris Hecker doesn't plan on releasing his ambitious one-on-one spy game until he feels that it's hit the "perfect jewel" point -- an indescribable essence, or rather, a point in development when the concept and execution gel. "I'm not that interested in shipping the earlier version of it," he told me at an NYU coffeeshop late last year. Hecker's bringing the game with him to next week's Game Developer's Conference where he'll also be giving a few short lectures. And yes, he'll be making the trek across the country in a few weeks to PAX East so that everyone can check it out. %Gallery-117474%
Second Life's Rod Humble on accessibility, new tech, and the future
Second Life doesn't get a ton of press anymore, partly because of its age and party because -- even after nearly eight years -- people still don't know what to make of it. Is it a game? Is it a virtual world? Is it a melting pot for anyone who has ever thought to themselves: "I know! Let's code, model, and distribute some giant free-standing genitalia!" Luckily, Rock, Paper Shotgun has stepped up to interview new Linden Lab boss Rod Humble and shed some light on the matter. Humble recently left EA after six years overseeing the second and third entries in the long running Sims franchise, and speaks about trading the relatively insulated world of virtual suburbia for the wild and incredibly untamed frontiers of Second Life. "What makes Second Life so intriguing to me is its hard to define nature. I have heard people call it a virtual world, a game, the 3D internet, a social media platform, the list goes on. I like that kind of unresolved ambiguity, I think it shows something that is not yet fully evolved and has exciting new roads to discover," Humble says. He goes on to outline plans to revamp Second Life's performance, ease-of-use, and service aspects in order to counter the recent decline in user hours.
Linden Lab names new CEO
For some time now there's been a question as to who would eventually be stepping into the shoes of CEO over at Linden Lab. In June, Mark Kingdon (aka M Linden) stepped down with very little warning after a series of layoffs, and Philip Rosedale (aka Philip Linden) stepped in as interim CEO while the company was reevaluating its direction and future technology potential. Now, news comes today that Rod Humble will be stepping into the CEO spot at Linden Lab in January. Humble has been in the games industry since 1990, during which time he's racked up involvement in over 200 different games. Prior to making the jump to CEO at Linden Labs, Humble was the President of Product Development on EverQuest, and worked on other SOE titles such as EverQuest Online Adventures and Star Wars Galaxies. Most recently, Humble worked as label lead on The Sims at EA, later attaining Executive Vice President for that division. His expertise in large online games and connection to a crazy hot title like The Sims may prove to be the combination needed to lead Second Life into an even more promising future. [Via Tateru Nino]
Rod Humble promoted to The Sims label lead
When we last spoke to The Sims' studio head, Rod Humble, he was applauding the franchise's retail success. Now the exec has another, albeit more personal reason to celebrate, having climbed up another rung on the corporate ladder, laying claim to the role of The Sims' brand's executive VP. The move follows the recent hiring of Jeff Green, who left the world of game journalism last month to throw his body on the gears of EA's expansion factory as well. Humble replaces former lead, Nancy Smith, who EA notes will handle "special" The Sims-related projects before eventually moving into a new as-yet-undefined role in the months ahead. We offer congratulations, and suggest he celebrate his new position by locking co-workers in the bathroom or pushing them in the corporate pool before deftly removing any means of escape.
GDC08: EA joins the user-generated bandwagon with 'The Sims Carnival'
GDC08 may have officially come to a close, but there's still plenty of news from the past week to catch up on. Lost in the mire of developer rants and ridiculously long lines was EA's announcement of The Sims Carnival, a "YouTube-style" site where users can create their own Sims-themed games, and play and rate those of their peers.By all appearances, Sims Carnival is just one more user-generated game portal, following suspiciously close to Microsoft's announcement of the XNA Community Games. What may set Carnival apart, however, is the involvement of Rod Humble, last seen wowing audiences with his minimalistic art game The Marriage. Still, examples games shown include your standard Space Invaders clones, and other simple titles which could very well turn Carnival into another dumping ground for mediocrity (albeit with the occasional low-fi breakthrough). The program is currently in a closed beta, but users can sign up via the website. We're anxiously waiting to be proven wrong on this, so go forth and create.
