Linden Lab is continuing with its mini-acquisition spree in gaming: it has just announced that it is buying Desura, a digital distribution service for PC gamers. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but it follows on from the company’s acquisition of LittleTextPeople in February 2012 and Blocksworld in January of this year. Linden Lab says it will keep Desura operating for now: “The service will continue uninterrupted for current customers as the team and technology become a part of Linden Lab,” it notes in an emailed statement announcing the deal.
The move underscores the transformation that Linden Lab has been making under CEO Rod Humble, who took the reins in 2011 amid declining usage for Second Life, the web-based virtual world that took the online gaming and social worlds by storm after it first launched in 2003. That has included a shift into more mobile experiences, as well as monetizable games experiences.
More to come. Release below.
Linden Lab® Acquires DesuraTM
SAN FRANCISCO – July 10, 2013 – Linden Lab, the makers of shared
creative spaces including Second Life®, PatternsTM, CreatorverseTM,
VersuTM, and dioTM, today announced that it has acquired Desura, a
digital distribution service for PC gamers. The service will continue
uninterrupted for current customers as the team and technology become
a part of Linden Lab.Desura puts the best games, mods, and downloadable content from
developers at gamers’ fingertips, ready to buy and play. The free
Desura application can serve and patch games, mods, and add-ons
directly for customers around the world. Developers and publishers can
share news, images, videos, and other content through their profiles,
while every member of the Desura community can post comments, submit
reviews, and upload screenshots from their own playing experiences.
Desura also demystifies user-made mods and add-ons for games by making
them as easy to find and install or update as professional titles.“Desura’s talented team, thriving business, and impressive technology
are a great fit for Linden Lab,” said Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab.
“This acquisition gives us a global platform for serving creative
developers of all kinds, and we’re looking forward to growing both
Desura’s global community of gamers and its fantastic portfolio of
thousands of games, mods, and other content. Our aim is to invest and
support the Desura team in making it the most open and
developer-friendly platform in the world.”The acquisition is Linden Lab’s second of the year and follows the
company’s acquisition of Blocksworld, an iPad game soon to be released
globally.About Linden Lab
Founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, Linden Lab makes
shared creative spaces that inspire and empower users to explore and
share their creativity with others.In 2003, the company released Second Life, the pioneering virtual
world filled by the unique creations of its users, who can build
anything they can imagine, socialize with others from around the
world, and share or sell their creations in a thriving real-money
marketplace.Linden Lab has now expanded its portfolio to include four new digital
entertainment products, including Patterns, a new 3D universe for
users to shape; Creatorverse, a tablet and mobile game that allows
users to set their creativity in motion; dio, a new shared creative
space on the web; and Versu, an interactive fiction experience that
makes the reader a part of a living story.For more about Linden Lab, its products, and career opportunities
please visit LindenLab.com.—-
