In the wake of the announced price-doubling for educators and non-profits, the reaction has been … well, just about as strong as I expected. A very significant chunk of those markets have been reconsidering Second Life as an option since Linden Lab gave them a wake-up call one year ago, and eyeing alternatives.
According to reports Linden Lab’s now sent around an email which smacks more of salesmanship than factual correctness, offering education and non-profit concerns short-term discount if they’ll take a fixed-term contract for their Second Life holdings before 31 December.
Dear Educators and Not-for-profits,
By now many of you have likely read the blog regarding our recent decision to discontinue the educational/not-for-profit discount on January 1, 2011 when we will move to a consistent pricing approach for all in Second Life. We recognize that this increase in cost may pose a hardship especially with the timing of budgets and funding, which is why we’re offering an early renewal option to extend the amount of time you can continue at the current rates in exchange for a longer term commitment.
An educational or not-for-profit institution that is currently under contract with us will be able to renew early (or purchase additional regions) and continue to receive the current 50% discount on land maintenance provided that the renewal takes place prior to the December 31, 2010. You will be able to select contract renewal options of 6, 12, 18 or 24 months under these terms. If your organization renews and enters into a contract no later than December 31, 2010, it can lock in the current discounted rate for up to 24 additional months.
Please note that any new purchases or renewals occurring after December 31, 2010 will be at our standard prices without the previous discount.
We hope that this clarifies the policy regarding both early and standard renewals. If you are interested in early renewal of your regions, please email us at slinvoice@lindenlab.com with “Early Renewal” in the subject line and provide the following information:
- Name of Institution or Organization
- Contact Name
- Contact Email
- SL Avatar Name to which the regions to be renewed are associated
- Name of Region(s) to be Renewed
- Renewal Time Period (6, 12, 18, 24 months)
You will receive confirmation of receipt of your request within 1 business day.
Upon review of your request, an invoice for renewal will be sent to the contact email address.
Thank you for understanding, and I hope to continue seeing many of you inworld.
Best Regards,
The Linden Lab Land Team
One part that raised my eyebrows was in the first paragraph where it says “on January 1, 2011 when we will move to a consistent pricing approach for all in Second Life.” Pretty much because it doesn’t appear to actually be true. A Lab spokesperson told me this week – in response to my enquiries – that the Lab’s other custom, whacky discount programmes would not be terminated in the short-term.
Ah, but presumably they’re already locked into fixed-term contracts. Still, that’s technically not quite the same thing.
If I am funded well in advance and don’t have a way raise the cash required by the tier doubling in the window provided by the Lab. How exactly am I going to raise the cash and approval for a new contract in the same time frame, even if it promises to lock my costs for up to 2 years.
A fine question, that. I can’t help but wonder if this has really been thought through.
31 December / January 1 is getting to be pretty crowded on the calendar for the Lab, I’ve noticed.
@Tateru Nino Rebrand and relaunch ?
Those of us in the UK will also get hit with an increase in VAT on the 3rd. Nothing to do with Linden Lab, but I have a couple of months to decide whether to renew Premium membership. The annual payment is still a good deal, but is Linden Lab a good bet?
Still thinking about it.
[...] Sono rientrato poco fa a casa pensando di scrivere questo articolo sull’educational in SL, quando ho scoperto che dopo 4 giorni dal post sconcertante sull’annullamento degli sconti per enti educational e no profit (http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/land/blog/2010/10/04/two-important-updates-on-2011-land-pricing) con validità a partire dal 1 gennaio 2011, la Linden ha spedito in forma privata (una email) una sorta di “correzione di rotta” dicendo che gli enti educational possono rinnovare “anticipatamente” il loro contratto conservando gli sconti fino a 2 anni (http://pastebin.com/kYvWRLNV) , notizia estratta dalla mailing list SLED degli educatori in secondlife. (Cfr anche il post “preoccupato” di Tateru: http://dwellonit.taterunino.net/2010/10/08/linden-lab-seeks-to-retain-non-profitseducation-customers…) [...]
It does really look like someone has set down a few go/no go requirements for a 1/1/2011. a purchase/funding/partnership? or maybe even pull the plug. Just a gut feeling on my part.
Purchase/funding/partnership – maybe. My gut feeling regarding ‘pulling the plug’ actually calmed down a bit after reading this.
Would it be possible that LL invites companies to sign 2 year contracts by 31.12.10, just to pull the plug one day later ? This is somehow the last i can imagine.
Does anyone else get the impression that the Lindens are thrashing about blindly in the dark? The Lab still has some pretty clever people on board, so presumably there is a system and a plan and a set of principles behind all this, but damn if it doesn’t look like seat-of-the-pants don’t-stop-to-look-up improvisation.
If there is a serious, considered, long-term plan, please tell us about it. Whatever it might be, cannot be worse than what we are fearing as we watch the Lab flounder.
And if there isn’t such a plan, then for gods’ sake stop this knee-jerk reactionism and start thinking. It wouldn’t hurt either SL or the Lab for them to just *stop talking* for a month or even a quarter, and then present a consistent and sensible plan.
IMHO YMMV L$0.02
There is nothing more significant about 12/31 or 1/1 except that it is the end of a quarter and end of the calendar year. If LL’s calendar year is the same as their fiscal year, then this is no surprise.
While I do think LL is re-positioning the company and appears to be re-directing resources to new priorities, I am much more confident in LL’s ability to sustain itself and move forward than I was earlier. I spent a lot of time in different office hours this week and the priorities and project discussions are not one’s a company would be engaged in if a sale or further reduction in people or resources was on the horizon.
I’m not so sure. Unless you’re selling for scrap, having ongoing practical projects and improvements is a vital part of getting a good price. Still, I’m going to be looking at this from another angle, shortly.
[...] much like the price increase for education and non-profits (about which they’ve sort of, vaguely back-tracked on, but not very effectively, and not really), I think the Lab should increase the price for [...]
The way LL has been running things, who in their right mind would want to be locked in for 12 or 24 months? They can’t be trusted.
full prim sim class 5 release > grandfathering for class 4
homestead price raise > grandfathering old homestead sims
edu/non profit for years in SL > no grandfathering…!
Obviously they are trying to make LL look good on paper, at the end of quarter. You all know why, listen to your guts not what LL is telling you. Or in this case not telling you.
@something false
“Obviously they are trying to make LL look good on paper, at the end of quarter. You all know why, listen to your guts not what LL is telling you. Or in this case not telling you.”
So what… they have to make LL look attractive to who? Bank managers? who will lend them cash for their next big thing? or investors who are unhappy about that massive drop in share price? and subsequently the value of their investment going down the toilet with every bad chess move.