Gaming exec to helm Second Life

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Press Release: Second Life’s New Leader: Rod Humble Becomes CEO of Linden Lab
MMO and Gaming Industry Visionary to Bring New Life to Second Life

SAN FRANCISCO — Linden Lab®, creator of 3D virtual world Second Life®, today announced that Rod Humble has become the company’s Chief Executive Officer. Humble joins Linden Lab from Electronic Arts, where he was Executive Vice President for its EA Play label.

Rod Humble

Humble’s 20-year career in the game development industry has included work on more than 200 games. In his most recent position at Electronic Arts, Humble headed the EA Play label, which includes the best-selling PC game franchise of all time, The Sims. In 2009, he was ranked #2 on the annual list of the Hot 100 Game Developers from gaming publication Edge. Prior to his work at Electronic Arts, Humble served as Vice President of Product Development at Sony Online Entertainment for the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), EverQuest.

“Rod is a great new leader for Linden Lab,” said Philip Rosedale, Founder of Second Life. “Second Life has become a consistently large and profitable business with a thriving virtual economy built together with its passionate Resident community. This has always been a big, long-term vision, it is still early and there is enormous opportunity for growth. With Rod’s fresh insights and deep experience in creating and leading the development of fun, intuitive, immersive entertainment experiences that have attracted massive audiences of loyal users, he’s the right leader to understand what makes us special and bring the next level of growth to Second Life.”

“Joining Linden Lab is a very exciting opportunity,” said Humble. “I have a long standing interest in the how the boundaries of society and economics change as communications evolve in new ways. Second Life is unique: it sits at the intersection of virtual worlds, avatars, and human contact. The Residents and developers of Second Life have built something very special, I am honored to join the talented team at Linden Lab to help expand this new frontier.”

About Linden Lab and Second Life

Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared online experiences known as Second Life. The privately held company has had revenues exceeding $75 million and has been profitable (excluding restructuring and non-cash stock compensation expense) each of the last three years. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and employs more than 220 people.

Second Life is the leading 3D virtual world filled with user-created content and immersive experiences. In Second Life, Residents meet and interact with friends around the world, enjoy entertainment from live music to role-playing games, explore unique environments and communities, and much more. Residents can also create, buy, and sell anything they can imagine, participating in the world’s largest user-generated virtual goods economy.

Today, Second Life’s virtual land mass would be roughly twice the size of Hong Kong. In Q3 2010 alone, over 750,000 unique Residents from around the globe spent more than 105 million hours experiencing Second Life while exchanging more than $150 million worth of Linden dollars in its economy.

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