Blame It on the Boogie

Exciting news from Scandinavia this week, where Swedish developers MindArk (the team behind Entropia Universe) have teamed up with the Michael Jackson estate to produce Planet Michael, “an innovative interactive gaming and social experience that celebrates Michael Jackson’s life as an artist and humanitarian”.

I could use this as a cue for a whole host of bad-taste jokes, but we’re much too classy for that here at SLS, so instead I’ll note that MindArk, along with other virtual world firms like (NSFW) Utherverse Digital Inc., seem to be following the sort of business plan that we’ve been advocating for Second Life for a while; don’t chase the mass market, go for the niche customers who are willing to pay a premium for the particular virtual experience they are interested in.