Metaplace: Your (Virtual) Universe is Ending

Filed in archive Virtual Worlds on December 23, 2009

© wellohorld


San Diego, Calif.-based Metaplce is pulling the plug on 70 thousand user-created virtual worlds on January 1st.

While Metaworld was one of the best platforms for user-created virtual worlds, it's found Ralph Koster says it simply wasn't making it as a business. Koster has asked that the last few days of Metaworld be a time for celebration, but Metaverse Journal thinks that's unlikely.

It's hard to imagine there'll be wall-to-wall joy given the enormous effort the user community have put into creating content on Metaplace. 2009 has seen the platform evolve significantly, and given that the open beta has only been in place a few months, this really does seem like a premature decision. The announcement does say that Metaplace Inc will continue operation and that they have "big plans" - let's hope those plans are able to bear fruit because the damage of closing a service like this so early on can't help any company's credibility.

VentureBeat reports that the company is turning off billing immediately.