Earlier today I made a trip to the BMW New World1 island in Second Life after an invitation from Munich Express to hear an announcement. I have hardly spent any time in virtual worlds lately but I’ve had many interesting conversations about them with Munich in the past and was intrigued to find out what news BMW had.
Like others, BMW has decided to end its current virtual world experiments in Second Life. Although it will be a shame to see them go, the message was generally very positive about the future for virtual worlds, which BMW are still investigating to use internally, hosted on their own servers. The announcement ended with a free gift for the audience, which I still can’t drive; I can see why there were never any BMW cars to test drive in Second Life!
BMW Pod
I’m glad I made it to the event, which sparked some great debate, and I’ll certainly be keeping in touch with Munich/Achim inside/outside Second Life.
Updates:
- there’s a bit more discussion about the news on Ambling in Second Life and Virtual Worlds News. (30 July 2008)
- another good report on the news on The Network. (31 July 2008)
Notes from a small field 