San Francisco-based Linden Lab took one more step towards the launch of its new virtual world: The company officially opened up sign-ups for Project Sansar Tuesday, inviting creators to get in line for early access this summer. Linden Lab plans to launch Project Sansar to consumers later this year.
Project Sansar aims to be a new 3D virtual world made for virtual reality (VR) headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. There will also be a 2D mode to access Project Sansar with a regular PC, and Linden Lab wants to eventually extend access to mobile devices as well.
So what’s Project Sansar? Linden Lab has thus far kept quiet on many key details, and only shown a few select pictures to the press and public. From what we know, it’s a virtual world that will eventually host many places designed and maintained by brands and hobbyists alike. These could be used as meeting places, host mini games, or simply mimic real-world locations.
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Linden Lab’s CEO Ebbe Altberg has in the past also described Project Sansar as a kind of WordPress for virtual reality, allowing companies to build VR experiences without a lot of technical knowledge. “Creating social VR experiences is too hard and expensive today, and that limits the value and growth of this incredible new medium,” he said Tuesday. “Creating your own VR experience shouldn’t require an engineering team, and Project Sansar will make that possible.”
Linden Lab isn’t the only company looking to enable social VR. Facebook is putting a lot of resources behind social VR, and Altspace has been offering social VR experiences for some time. Landmark Entertainment meanwhile is in the process of building a Virtual World’s Fair, which could compete with at least some of what Project Sansar aims to offer.
