Briana Dawson

Quarterly Land Supply and Island Pricing Update « Official Second Life Blog

Island Pricing

Our new Land Store is moving through testing and will be launched in April, perhaps within a week or two depending on how final testing goes. It will be cross browser compatible and will provide nearly instant delivery of a new island after completing checkout.

For Q2 our Island pricing is changing. New islands will be USD$1000 and this change will go live upon the new Land Store being launched, so before the end of April. Orders placed before the launch will be at the current USD$1675 pricing. Monthly fees will remain the same for Q2.

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Ray Figtree

Can you say "Black Monday"?

/me smells desperation.

It's a big f*ck you to anyone who bought a mainland sim since they started dumping them to auction again. Most mainland sims go for well over $2000. Or at least they did before this announcement.

That's a pretty dramatic drop. Mainland landlords will feel the sting. Look for the price of Mainland to drop too. I'd say the base will soon be L$6.5 a meter.

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Bradley Bracken

It's an amazing drop in price. I'd like to think it's a wonderfully creative idea that will encourage more to buy in SL and will greatly increase our population.

I think that the recession is the more likely cause and LL is getting desperate.

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Lucifer Baphomet

Now, if they cut the tier..... I'll go for it, and finally link up with Caledon.

Io Zeno

How much is it now?

Sarah Nerd

My rentals are really low this month. I have a bit to many open lots for comfort. I wonder how this will effect it. I think the drop is good for sl overall, but really sucks for people who have invested a lot into islands and mainland.

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Ray Figtree

Whether you own a mainland sim, or an Estate, you just got hosed. If you ever planned to sell your estate and recoup what you paid, now you won't. And mainland sim values will be plummeting too.

I'm all for price drops but this is too much all at once. Idiots.

Dnate Mars

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Lucifer Baphomet

$295 a month, plus I'd be hit with VAT

Io Zeno

Well since no one is answering I will just say I always thought the tier on Islands was too much given the initial upfront cost in comparison to the same price for sharing some server space elsewhere.

Sarah Nerd

sims did cost $1675usd, and after all transfer fees and resell costs and finding buyers they generally resold at around 1K. I can see em dropping to 500 bucks resale.

Io Zeno

Fuck that noise.

Io Zeno

So they wanted 1675 up front then 300 a month, that is outrageous.

Just drop the tier so people can make up the cost of their island on resale, ffs.

Wildefire Walcott

It will decrease the pool of renters but won't dry the market up completely. A thousand bucks is still a big-ass one-time payment for a lot of people, and as has already been observed, the resale value is going to be significantly lower. Things will get very competitive now though, I'm afraid. I'm just glad I decided to stick with my "buy only with SL money" policy when adding new islands.

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mAlice

Sheesh....that was the first thing I thought as well. I guess it's a good thing I never planned on recouping my purchase price (mainland sim). That's a huge drop all at once.

Of course, I never thought the initial cost was the major barrier....it's those absurdly high tier fees. I guess people don't notice as much if they pay over time--lwhich is why I suppose people get into so much trouble with their credit cards, too.

Sarah Nerd

If I lose it all tomorrow, I end up with what i started with in sl....nothing. Well I'd lose a few years of busting my ass, but I guess thats all.

jauani

watch out sky falling

Lucifer Baphomet

You have inventory.

Sarah Nerd

I love this game, I really fucking love it, but I hate it when my support is returned with slaps in the face from LL. I would be 100% fine with price decreases, and honestly welcome them but like Ray said slowly and over a period of time so that everyone could adjust accordingly.

Dnate Mars

That is not their style. Don't you remember when they did the price increase? I believe that someone at LL wants an influx of cash coming in.

Lordfly Digeridoo

Some people (people who don't own sims) dont' want to wait 4 years for them to drop land prices $25/month every month.

it was only a matter of time; I imagine their costs have collapsed since they started charging those prices... in tech, costs go down, not up, assuming the same hardware requirements.

Oh, plus they're now competing with OpenSim and all the other VWs out there.

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Sarah Nerd

This also means that mainland price is dropping. The next 4 months every time I quote someone at say 7L a meter when thats the current market who paid 8-10L a meter when the price was higher is going to cuss me out and call me names and think I'm trying to screw them if they haven't taken a look at current market prices. Yay!!!

Dnate Mars

Yes, this is part of the reason I got out of the land business. People haven't a clue when things change.

caroline ra

Would be nice but on past form the chances are that it will be the opposite.

'At the end of Q2 we will review pricing once again and post a similar update including pricing information for Q3'.

Which might mean the ppl who paid top whack for sims would get some leeway in grandfathered tier. While the older $195 sims get increased to $295 and the new lower priced sims get an increase from that to $350 or summat. Nothing would surprise me.