Second Life will soon be added to the list of Oculus Rift games, according to a report from New World Notes. A spokesman from Linden Labs, developer of Second Life, has confirmed Oculus Rift integration and promises “strong support” for the VR headset.
Second Life (2003) is a free massively multiplayer role playing game (MMORPG) where players create virtual avatars to inhabit the world. Players can create homes, clothes, buildings, and more; a virtual economy provides ways for players to sell and trade such goods. Second Life has around 33 million registered users.
New World Notes reportsthat Linden Labs has unveiled its plans to support the Oculus Rift VR headset in an official manner.
“Yes, we plan to strongly support Oculus Rift. That means code, client, and server-side, to make the Oculus Rift experience excellent in Second Life”, NWN quotes Peter Gray, PR manager at Linden Labs. Gray didn’t offer a timeline for Second Life Oculus Rift support just yet – but judging by his words, the virtual reality studio is very interested in the device.
NWN is speculating that the first Second Life demos with Rift support could be released this year, with a full-fledged integration following when the consumer version hits the market. According to Oculus VR Inc’s own predictions, the Oculus Rift release should happen in Q3 2014 – so Linden Labs has lots of time to integrate a proper Oculus Rift mode into their version of the Metaverse.
In addition to the official information, several members of the development studios have unofficially pledged their support for the VR headset. Supposedly, there’s “lots of interest” and many Linden Labs developers are waiting for their private Oculus Rift dev kits. It will be interesting to see how well the Second Life integration for the Rift will work once it’s finished.
A New Challenger
Second Life is not the only MMORPG interested in VR — a possible competitor is already waiting around the corner; Philip Rosedale, original inventor of Second Life, has founded a new company called High Fidelity and wants to create “a new kind of virtual reality platform.”
Is it just a coincidence that his project has unveiled a few weeks after the first Oculus Rift developer kits shipped, or will High Fidelity’s VR platform support Rift as well? We’ll update you as new information pops up.
With support for these types of games on the way for the Oculus Rift, the acronym may grow comically longer — VRMMORPG.
