Linden Lab revealed that the first invites to the Sansar Creator Preview program would begin to roll out next week. The company said that it selected a group of creators with talents that reflect the current state of Sansar.
The company has been accepting applications since April and has received more than 6,500 so far, and it's in fact still accepting applications, but the selection of the first round of candidates is complete. Linden Lab began sending invitations to selected creators this week.
“To start, we’re inviting a select group of creators whose skills and projects are the best fit for Sansar’s capabilities today,” said Bjorn Laurin, VP of Product at Linden Lab. “As the platform matures, we’ll continue inviting more and more creators up until public release early next year.”
Linden Lab’s vision for Sansar is to provide a platform for anyone to create customized social VR simulations that can be accessed by whomever they wish. Project Sansar will eventually have a platform for monetization, allowing creators to make money through their VR simulations. Those creators that are lucky enough to get into the Creator Preview will have the opportunity to have their creations ready for the public launch next year.
Sansar will launch in early 2017 with support for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Linden Lab is also baking in support for PCs with 2D screens, so even if you don’t have a VR HMD, it’s worth paying attention to Sansar’s progress.
Update, 9/1/16, 3:43pm PT: Linden Lab reached out to us after publishing this article to clarify that the company has dropped "Project" from the name. The successor to Second Life is now known simply as Sansar. The story was updated to remove references to the former name. The company also noted that invitations actually started going out this week.
