On Thursday I attended a press conference hosted by Linden Lab regarding Xstreet SL & OnRez in Second Life.

The press conference was held inworld at the Abundance virtual sim and Lindens Catherine Smith, Tom Hale, Chris Colosi, Steven Grant, and Jay Geeseman were in attendance answering questions on the recent acquisitions of Xstreet SL and OnRez.

Financial information was not disclosed and Linden Lab underscored the point that they will not be changing much at Xstreet SL any time soon. The adult content will still be available and the commission structure should be very similar if not the same. The eventual plan is to integrate virtual item sales into the inworld Second Life browser but this will definitely be pursued cautiously with an emphasis on preserving grid and viewer stability.

Competitors such as Apez.biz and other will be allowed to continue to operate and Linden Lab has no desire to create a monopoly.

Store Fronts Integrated with XStreet SL

One interesting goal was that of eventually having full store front (virtual stores) inworld that fully integrate with XStreet SL and an external web site. The goal is to put the power in the residents hands and allow them to buy and sell virtual products more easily and in multiple ways while gaining exposure to more Second Life avatars.

It is also clear that this acquisition points to another revenue stream for Linden Lab. Although financial projections were not released, the commission revenue from the sale of virtual goods should be significant and it is hard to see this as anything but a sound financial move.