‘Second Life’ finally makes its way to mobile phones 20 years after launch

Contrary to what one might think, Second Life alive than ever. What many consider to be the “original metaverse” will turn 20 in June, and the developers intend to celebrate it in a big way. Except that Linden Lab announced that the platform will have a mobile versionand that it intends to launch a beta this year.

The news is interesting for two reasons. First, because it ratifies reality Second Life, despite remaining largely a niche alternative in recent years. Second, because for the first time in almost two decades, the virtual world break the barrier of computers to access mobile devices.

In a video posted on their official forum, Linden Lab provided some details on how they are working on Second Life for iOS and Android. Images that can be seen in the publication definitely those that are under development; However, they stand out both in the quality achieved in the representation of avatars and in the scenarios available for study.

This is not a minor detail, given that the developers themselves assured that the most problematic thing in porting the platform to mobile phones is reproducing the appearance and feel of the characters and the environment. As for the technical part, not much has been explained. It was only said that Second Life for smartphones and tablets developed in Unitymaking it easy to work with and distribute to multiple devices.

In terms of navigating the virtual world, the video shows that you can see your surroundings by swiping your fingers across the touch screen. Though underneath they show five white dots that provide different types of interaction. In fact, a directional cross will appear for walking with avatars, although the movement can be combined with a change in scene perspective.

Second Life encouraging the transition to mobile devices

From Linden Lab they claim that they tried to bring Second Life to mobile devices in previous cases. However, this is the first time they’ve actually come close to making it happen. The company has not yet set specific dates for the launch of the virtual world on smartphones and tablets, although, as we have already said, plans to start beta testing this year.

At the moment it is impossible to know if this new version will be successful. Or, at least, it will achieve the effect expected by the developers. At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that Second Life he knows how to stay up to date despite being a niche alternative; which doesn’t mean it’s an uninhabited platform, far from it. In 2013, its community was estimated at one million regular users; while in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, it continued to be around 900,000 per month.

This is certainly a far cry from the tens of millions of accounts that have been created since debut. Second Life. However, they are numbers. outrageously better than Horizon Worldsfrom Meta, which draws less than 200,000 people a month and has a very low retention rate.

It will be interesting to see what approach Linden Lab takes with the mobile version. Second Life. It can be assumed that the idea will be to provide current users with the opportunity to take their favorite virtual world with them everywhere without being tied to a computer. While it will be fundamental to this that the platform allows progress synchronizationregardless of the device from which it is accessed.

The big question is what interest it can generate Second Life among potential new users. Will it be able to attract the attention of users who have not been attracted by offers such as Horizon Worlds, decentralized land and so many other metaverses? Issues may begin to be resolved after the first beta version of the application becomes available.