Interview: Electric Sheep Company Lays Off 22, Repositioning for 2008

The Electric Sheep Company, one of the leading virtual worlds developers, laid off 22 members of its staff today in a rightsizing and repositioning of the company to address the changing virtual worlds market, Valerie Williamson, VP of Marketing and Business Development, for Sheep tells VirtualWorldsNews.com in a telephone interview. "We have seen tremendous growth over the last year and this is a right-sizing of the organization," she says. "The company is very healthy and not in financial trouble." The marketplace is changing and Sheep is changing with it.

"[In 2008] virtual world projects will diverge across more platforms than in the past," says Sibley Verbeck, CEO, The Electric Sheep Company in the Virtual Worlds Management Industry Forecast 2008 released today. "Work will largely be on a smaller number of larger projects that are focused on creating profitable business rather than more numerous, smaller projects meant to be small experiments or "planting flags," he says. Sheep works with large clients, including MTV and CSI and expects continue to work on these and other large projects into 2008.  The full report is available for free here.

"We are disappointed by having to make such a tough call," says Williamson.  Divisions affected included the virtual worlds advertising network, which was focused initially on the Second Life platform, and the company’s virtual worlds events team as well as a consolidation of the creative staff. Sheep will continue to manage events but since events are never running all the time it was a strategic decision to outsource event management rather than maintain those resources in house, full time. 54 Sheep employees remain. The company also maintains relationships with 20 contractors.

Also on the agenda for 2008 is the development of Sheep-owned content - another strategic direction for the company. "We're also developing our own strategic content and proprietary technology," says Williamson, who to declined to elaborate further - only to say that this content and technology will likely launch on the Second Life platform initially but that the company will look to take it to other platforms as well. 

New Platforms and Growth is Top of Mind

While Sheep remains committed to the Second Life platform where it has been predominantly focused, the company is focused on diversifying to other platforms as well. "We need to be nimble to take advantage of new platforms such as Metaplace, Multiverse and Icarus," says Williamson.

Certainly the number of new platforms launching in 2008 is on the entire industry's collective mind.  In fact it was 1 of 5 questions we asked in the Virtual Worlds Management Industry Forecast 2008. Of the 45 industry leaders interviewed for the Report, the majority said that the single largest trend they see for 2008 is massive industry growth.

A number of participants predicted a boom in new worlds gaining significant parts of the market and predicted that 2008 was the year for significant population growth and a mainstreaming of virtual worlds.

“The very stiff competition between [the new platforms] will result in quicker innovation that is focused on specific features needed,” says Verbeck.

We'll see more media companies and consumer brands taking the plunge into virtual  worlds and potentially establish[ing] their own branded universe,” says Michael Cai, Director, Broadband & Gaming, with researcher Parks Associates in the Virtual Worlds Management Forecast. “They will likely adopt a more controlled model, feature more organized activities, and tie virtual worlds with real-world products, services, and activities.”

Christopher Sherman
www.VirtualWorldsNews.com

Comments

[Jeremy Vaught]

Thanks for this round up of what happened. Valerie is one person I didn't talk to in all this.

Nice work.

[Anonymous Coward]

"rightsizing"???

[Chaz Longstaff]

In other words, they began acting like a bloated, flashy company, full of kids straight out of communications or MBA degrees, who sold their clients vapid, vague talk at such eye-popping rates that it was impossible to produce any kind of results that could be justified at those costs. And at the client end, the same kind of people, eagerly lapping up all the hype, with nary a thought either for any kind of return on investment or cost justification, now scrambling to blame either the consulting firm or the Second Life environment or both rather than themselves for "not getting" how the approach should have been made...... Not that I'm cynical....