What would you like to see in Premium Plus?

[Love Zhaoying]

4 hours ago, Drayke Newall said:

Consider this. Roblox has only recently made a profit after years of losses and earn about $1.2billion total revenue before expenses now with a recent profit of about $400million. Despite making losses for years, they charge $0 for creating an environment. They built their userbase up because it is free to make environments therefore more people build, thus bringing in more people to play thus bringing in more money to improve the platform.

Interestingly, prior to 2018 Roblox only allowed a free account to create 1 experience and had a tiered system of more experience creation limit based on tiered premium (paid) accounts. In 2017 Roblox's total revenue was $45million. In 2018 they made everyone able to create as many experiences as they wanted for free (with a high limit) and in 2018 the total revenue was $335million and climbed higher ever since. Is it a coincidence that their userbase and revenue (through premium and currency purchase) increased enormously when they removed 'land/experience' being tied to a premium account and made it free?

I don't know much about Roblox..but: I saw Roblox gift cards at my local Walgreen's today. It said on the package, "includes 1 free item/object".  I thought it interesting, that Roblox is that mainstream.

Edited June 1, 2022 by Love Zhaoying

[Gabriele Graves]

24 minutes ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

  if they could afford it; it would be lower.   simple facts there.

I don't know about that.  There may possibly be some facts in there but what I see mostly is speculation.

[Drayke Newall]

1 hour ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

  if they could afford it; it would be lower.   simple facts there.

It is not as simple as that. Or, are you suggesting LL have ultra thin profit margins when earning $645million odd dollars? That the two investors that bought LL thought they would just buy an unprofitable business because they had extra cash to spare (keeping in mind Tilia only had ONE company signed up at the time . Now they have TWO)? That LL pulled money out of a hat that enabled them to create Sansar or Tilia or blocksworld etc?

No company would fund other ventures without enough profit behind them to do so. Second Life is profitable enough to allow LL to freely fund other ventures without loosing money. Its their cash cow and everyone has known this for years.

Even if we take LL staff, rental and a generous amount of money for other overheads, that still leaves a large net profit. They have around 200 staff, even if you give each staff member $100,000 and allow $400,000,000 for overheads that still leaves over $200,000,000 in profit every year.

This not even taking into consideration the millions of dollars in deals they make with the like of Unity for using Tilia.

Additionally, as I mentioned, Roblox also couldn't afford to get rid of experiences tied to premium, they were making a substantial loss every year yet, only saw a profit after they removed their similar 'regions' from premium and made them completely free. It's not a coincidence at all that in 2017 they earned $45million and then the following year over $300million when they removed land tied to premium. Nor a coincidence that they saw user uptake boom in 2018.

The fact is, land cost is a substantial reason why Second Life hasn't grown. It is why businesses left years ago, the same companies LL's CMO wants to come back. It is why IBM and many others left for opensim. It is why Education companies left on mass after their discount was removed. Second Life is prohibitively expensive. Until LL lower land prices dramatically Second Life will never even become a casual virtual world that LL's CMO stated they want to grow into.

Roblox learnt this, changed its methods and saw their product boom in both revenue and users and now make a larger profit than LL. Linden Lab on the other hand are doing what Roblox stopped by bringing out another premium package that gives people more mainland, that no one wants. That is to say, a tiered premium to access Land.

[diamond Marchant]

21 minutes ago, Drayke Newall said:

earning $645million odd dollars

The $600+ million dollar figure that gets thrown around is Second Life GDP (not sure exactly how that is computed) and is used to bolster Tilia's reputation. Linden Research is a private company and is not required to release its financials, so it does not.

Daniel Voyager Second Life Stats

Edited June 2, 2022 by diamond Marchant

[MichaelRomani]

Feel free to correct me if I am thinking wrong.  Didn't Disney Pirates of the Caribbean Online do a massive move to premium and was suddenly over and done with within a couple of years? If I am remembering correctly, this seems problematic and maybe unsustainable as a business model. I only throw these thoughts in because I would hate to see another place that I have invested a great deal of time in make a wrong move.   

[bigmoe Whitfield]

I'm bowing out of this one, Running a business is not cheap.

[Drayke Newall]

1 hour ago, diamond Marchant said:

The $600+ million dollar figure that gets thrown around is Second Life GDP (not sure exactly how that is computed) and is used to bolster Tilia's reputation. Linden Research is a private company and is not required to release its financials, so it does not.

Daniel Voyager Second Life Stats

If it is GPD then that means it was the latter I was talking about, that they are lying to make themselves look good Tilia wise. That said, the CMO interviews recently stated that transactions of virtual goods totalled $650million. "...Second Life, which claims that transactions of virtual goods totalled $650 million in 2021, with content creators pocketing more than $80 million of that". Source: Second Life's New CMO

The word transactions means something was sold and bought (revenue), not something was listed and not/possibly sold (GDP). This is why I said either it means that either people purchased Lindens to equal that amount or there are that many Lindens floating around that are never cashed out. Even if it is a combination, if you include $L purchase along with revenue from premium and land they are making a couple of 100 million dollars a year easy.

In 2011 LL revenue was more than $75million and considering they are charging more in fees, have seen inflation on prices in SL on goods (more L$ purchase) and now have far higher mesh upload fees, they are clearly making a lot more than they were in 2011 especially if they can spend a couple of hundred million on Sansar flop and start Tilia in 2019.

Also keep in mind this, LL stated in 2011: "... land revenues represent only a part of Linden's total revenues, so any change there represents an even smaller impact overall and can also be offset by positive changes in other revenue items".

This statement means that as far back as 2011, LL have not been concerned about loosing revenue on land tier as any decline or changes has a small impact overall on their revenue due to other revenue off setting it.

Like I said before and you also mentioned we dont know LL actual revenue but it has to be more than their 2011 revenue if they can spend money on start-ups and continue for another 11 years with RL cost increases.

2 years ago premium+ was also mentioned by LL as being a hope to lower land tier by offsetting costs. Something tells me however that tier will remain the same after they announce it and it shows uptake.

Edited June 2, 2022 by Drayke Newall

[Tary Allen]

I wasn't able to be there since it is 8h early than my RL time, but I would if I could.

But if you hear from minute 2 some key points: 

Plus is delayed to SLB19 

Plus regions and Plus Linden homes in the horizon

Well, both expected, if the land tier is increasing I always though we would have LH in 2048 parcels also. The when was not said.

I can't thank enough Pantera for putting this online, thank you so much

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by Tary Allen
info

[Chris Corvinus]

There is no need for a "premium plus". Add to the one you have. Raise the price as needed. 

[bigmoe Whitfield]

so just kinda watching this,  5:08ish.  talking about charging for mobile access? cheaper?  uhm.  ya want mobile adoption, it's gonna have to be for everyone freely @Linden Lab

[Tary Allen]

55 minutes ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

so just kinda watching this,  5:08ish.  talking about charging for mobile access? cheaper?  uhm.  ya want mobile adoption, it's gonna have to be for everyone freely @Linden Lab

I was puzzled by it also, not a feature I need anyway, but agreed, charging for it doesn't seem a good idea.

I guess we will have to wait to SLB19 to see what it will bring, seems Patch will announce it, maybe disclosing some Plus LH (it is one of their best selling products and the Lab knows it).

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

6 hours ago, bigmoe Whitfield said:

so just kinda watching this,  5:08ish.  talking about charging for mobile access? cheaper?  uhm.  ya want mobile adoption, it's gonna have to be for everyone freely @Linden Lab

I wonder if it's a monthly charge or just to purchase the app? Hopefully the Linden's don't start dinging for everything else.

[bigmoe Whitfield]

5 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

I wonder if it's a monthly charge or just to purchase the app? Hopefully the Linden's don't start dinging for everything else.

I'm currently temp working, taking care of my mother and grandmother,  I dont have extra income to pay for premium or premium plus.   so I have no room for dingage.

[Sid Nagy]

On 6/2/2022 at 12:45 AM, bigmoe Whitfield said:

  if they could afford it; it would be lower.   simple facts there.

Nope: The price of a commercial product is not costs + a reasonable profit margin, but costs + as much profit as possible, so that the consumer price is as high as possible, but so that enough consumers are still willing to buy it. It's called price optimization. A smart company makes it's profit margin as high as possible.
Commercial businesses are not there for the well being of their clients, but to line up their own pockets as much as possible.
Marketing 101.

Edited June 3, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Luna Bliss]

Premium plus should allow a Game Of Homes player to fly back and forth between homes at least 500 times per day instead of limited to a puny 5 or 10 choices per day (can't remember which it is now).  I mean when you're in the mood to play GOH you're in the mood to play GOH!!

[Aethelwine]

With the Sakura regions I am now thinking wouldn't it be nice to be able to have two 512 parcels, so I could have one in Sakura and a holiday home camper.

[Chic Aeon]

On 5/24/2022 at 7:42 PM, Chic Aeon said:

It seem logical that it would be just before SL19B or "at" SL19B.   So a couple more weeks?  You know things are never as soon as we expect them to be LOL.  

In case folks haven't heard (I haven't been watching this thread) :

 

• Premium Plus will officially launch during SL19B (Thursday, June 16th through to Sunday, June 26th, 2022).

[Alexacroft]

unlimited animesh

[Akane Nacht]

premium's already too rich for me with the exchange rate. if they had Premuim Lite at half the price and just a Linden home, I'd take that.

[Ceka Cianci]

I don't know how the rest of the world is doing , but with the way the economy is now and only getting worse in the U.S... They will probably see a lot of regular premiums dropping to basic from U.S. customers.

Might see the same with U.S. land and sim owners as well. It's getting pretty nasty and only gonna get worse for a couple of years.

[Annie Evergreen]

Two months ago I would have jumped on Plus. But the longer this drags out, the less I'm interested. I've gone from WOW to meh in my opinion of upgrading. They will have to pull out something spectacular now to convince me to change.

[LittleMe Jewell]

43 minutes ago, Ayla Evergarden said:

Two months ago I would have jumped on Plus. But the longer this drags out, the less I'm interested. I've gone from WOW to meh in my opinion of upgrading. They will have to pull out something spectacular now to convince me to change.

This really describes my feelings about it also.  We first heard about Plus back in 2019, I think.  That was 3 freakin years ago.

[Ceka Cianci]

26 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

This really describes my feelings about it also.  We first heard about Plus back in 2019, I think.  That was 3 freakin years ago.

Damn, It's been that long already?  Work made my days blend too much to make time pass like that.. I need to slow time down some..

New job time!! \o/

hehehe

[Mr Amore]

Are we there yet?

The only feature I'd upgrade for are the 30 second audio uploads, otherwise I'm not in need of incremental upgrades.

[diamond Marchant]

Depending on your tier situation, Premium Plus may be simply  a price reduction. So don't forget to check that out.