SLENTRE.COM

By Sigmund Leominster, News Editor

Redwood City, California, is the home of start-up gaming company, Vollee. It may also be the starting point for a new generation of Second Lifers who want access to their favorite virtual world via a cell phone. From today (June 6th, 2008) on, owners of 3G or Wi-Fi-enabled phones can download a beta version of a new Second Life® client that runs on their mobile. The thin-client software uses a relatively tiny 100kB of memory to stream Second Life directly from Linden Lab® servers.

At this point, Vollee claims the software will run on over 40 different types of phones, with LG, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung being four of the major players. After signing up at the website, users receive a text message that points them to a download location. According to their web site’s official FAQs, “Vollee enables content that has never been possible on mobile devices before. We take into account the screen size, the key layout and we adapt the application to make it fun on the phone while preserving the high quality of the original. Vollee can do all of this, without accessing the game’s original source code through our patented tools. Vollee games are optimized for low latency on high speed networks (the time it takes between the moment a key is pressed and the time that the resulting action takes place).”

The first announcement of the Vollee-Linden Lab partnership came in February 2008 at the Games Developers Conference in San Francisco. At that time, Vollee’s CEO, Martin Dunsby, said, “What we have developed is a service which, for the first time, allows you to access a rich persistent virtual 3D world the way it is supposed to be experienced on your phone. This is a true ‘before and after moment’ in which mobile is living up to its potential in serving as an always on, connected, platform.”

Chris Mahoney, Business Development Manager for Linden Lab, added that, “For Linden Lab, this represents an intuitive way to extend the reach and accessibility of the Second Life Grid platform. This is a great way for Second Life Residents to stay connected to their friends, business, and experiences in-world, wherever they are.”

In a streaming video provided by Newsweek, an avatar can be seen walking through Second Life, communicating via IM, flying, teleporting, and doing just what an avatar would do on a full screen monitor. By all accounts, the rendering of the Second Life environment on the small screen is done extremely well.

Vollee is hoping to capture not just the handheld market for Second Life users, but in partnership with Activision, the company hopes to provide mobile access to the 10 million strong World of Warcraft®, one of the largest virtual environments in the world.