Another One Bites the Dust: Virtual MTV closes

There.com’s sister 3DVW Virtual MTV is closing its doors. Here’s a portion of the note posted at There:

Members,

As some of you might have heard, MTV is planning to shut down “vmtv.com”, originally known as “Virtual Laguna Beach”, later this month. We at Makena will be sorry to see it go, as its environments based on hit shows like Laguna Beach and The Hills were a new experience for us, and an exciting learning process for Makena and the VMTV community. As you can imagine, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on why they decided to shut it down, or what their future plans are.

However, as you all know, a virtual community is far more than the environment. In fact, it’s a small part of what makes it a community. Even though the environments are gone as we knew them, we know that the VMTV community will still be there, and many of them might visit us in There.com. As with any visitor from any virtual world, I know that the There community will welcome them and do their very best to make them feel at home.

As you know, VMTV was based off the same software as There.com, but it had a “simplified” UI and lacked a lot of There’s coolest features (Hoverpacks, ‘hugs, and real estate, to name a few), so a lot of the members might have questions and need a little help here and there. I know you’ll all be more than willing to help them out and introduce them to everything from CC Metro to our huge catalog of developer items.

So let’s dust off the Welcome mats and warm up those volcano fizzes! Company’s a comin!

Michael Wilson
CEO, Makena Technologies

Viacom, once a major supporter of these worlds, who also sponsored the now goneThe L Word Islands in Second Life, and the vSide clone Virtual Lower East Side, seems to be pulling out of the 3D virtual world business all together.

This is no doubt part of the major cutbacks being made at Viacom, which isn’t making as much money in TV ad revenue as they once did.

Update: From the vmtv.com forums:

Dear vMTV member,

In August of 2006 MTV launched its own virtual world where you could watch our shows and live the MTV life, virtually. You’ve sent us your comments and we listened. We’re excited to let you know that you can now check out a new and improved version of Virtual MTV at virtual.mtv.com! This new ALPHA version is browser-based and allows you to create an avatar, get your own crib, explore virtual worlds and play games.

Here’s how it’s going to work: On February 19, 2009, vMTV (www.vmtv.com) will officially close and the new virtual world experience will begin. You will be able to link your new virtual account with your old one and convert your MTV$ to our new virtual currency, MTV Coin, at a 1:1 exchange rate (e.g., 1 MTV$ will convert to 1 MTV Coin). Be sure to link your accounts by February 18th or your existing MTV$ will not be eligible for conversion for use in the new Virtual MTV.

To convert your MTV$ amount to MTV Coin, you first have to sign up for MTV.com and then link your existing avatar to that account (it helps if the email you use for vMTV is the same). If at any point you have trouble linking your account, please email us at virtualmtv@mtv.com. For terms and conditions of the use of MTV Coin in Virtual MTV please see our Virtual Reality Additional Terms for MTV.com http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/mtvinfo/virtual_terms.pdf

Thanks for playing and we hope to see you in our new world – we built it with you in mind!

Thanks and enjoy,
MTV Staff

So that’s that. Another one bites the dust.