BMW are leaving Second Life
I was unfortunately unable to make the inworld announcement today by Munich Express, the Second Life avatar of Achim Muellers, the Head of Brand Relations for BMW. However, he kindly IM'ed me the gist of the announcement:
BMW have decided they will be leaving Second Life in the near future.
This may not be a great surprise, but I have to say I am disappointed. I hope to find out more from Munich/Achim when I can, and will bring you more when I find out more.
On a personal note, I hope this does not mean the permanent disappearance of Herr Express from Second Life, as I have had many enjoyable debates and discussions with him in the past, and would welcome further such debates in the future.
UPDATE 31-07-2008:
I thought you might be interested to see some previous articles I posted on BMW. Perhaps the most illuminating is a chat with Munich/Achim from over a year ago. While This, this and this give you a bit more historical background.
3 comments:
I made it along to the announcement and the good news is Munich isn't going anywhere. I never really thought that the, very common, create a branded island approach would work that well, particularly given the low number of users in Second Life. Interoperability did come up in the discussion which I think will become hugely important when companies host their own content if the future of virtual worlds isn't going to be in even more isolated islands.
driving a car in SL is pretty lame experience, so no wonder all the serious car brands have lost interest. In fact, although H4 is better physics engine, the moving experience in SL is still tame/lame shame.
We have a few hoverboards and skates that are fun enuff--but cars, planes, rockets? Not much to compare to Xbox, PS3.
rar, I agree with you about the driving experience in SL - compounded further by the fact that I am crap at it.
Interestingly, such an experiece was not on offer from BMW, who rightly reckoned that a poor inworld driving experience was unlikely to enhance their brand. That said, I think they struggled to find the right hook to draw people into a cohesive network or SIG around their brand. If they had, perhaps their presence in SL would have continued. However, it is difficult to maintain the momentum without continual injections of activity - and I know they were concerned that their target audience was disappointingly small, compared to other social networks.
Post a Comment