Someone asked me the other day when was the best time to launch a virtual world. Swords dug up an old Ren Reynolds Terra Nova post from 2004, when Ren asked the question for MMOGs. An amusing answer is “before you run out of money”, but let’s say that money isn’t the primary issue.
- If your demographic is young kids, Betsy Book of There.com argued in 2004 (and she remains consistent to this day!) that it is best to launch in early summer when kids are out of school. I have also heard arguments that parents are more lax in summer, permitting greater doses of online entertainment.
- If you are trying to tie your virtual world to a retail product, then launching in time for the Thanksgiving-thru-Christmas window is probably a smart move to give your real-world product the best chance to compete.
- If your demographic is college kids, conventional wisdom seems to say launch just before a new semester starts, when students are past the crunch of exams and yet are still in school which helps word of mouth.
- If you are targeting adults, summer seems to be a slow-down period (this is certainly a trend we saw in Second Life for several years), so early spring or early fall are probably the best bets.
We pulled up US Internet usage to see if there were any noticeable trends, but Comscore’s figures for the last 12 months do not show any serious lulls in activity. I’ll share the graph for the curious.
I am continuing to poll industry folks on their experience with seasonality. So, virtual worlders out there, what have you seen and what do you think?