For the longest time, Catwa absolutely ruled the Bento mesh head market, almost having a monopoly. But I get the impression that they are now under attack from all sides lately, and possibly losing market share.
The Genus Project has truly fired a shot across the bow with their release of the completely free, absolutely gorgeous Strong Face Bento mesh head group gift, which comes with a couple of fully-featured HUDs (including some things that Catwa used to charge extra for, after you shelled out L$5,000 for one of their heads). Seriously, this has got to be one of the best freebies I have ever picked up in Second Life, and I have seen one hell of a lot of freebies in my 14 years in SL!
I did a little tinkering with the free Strong Face head, and last year’s free group gift of the Altamura Juliet body, and I came up with the following look, which I am rather pleased with:
This avatar is wearing:
Mesh Head: Strong Face by Genus Project (free group gift; includes the mesh eyes)
Mesh Body: Juliet from Altamura (free group gift from Valentine’s Day 2019)
Skin Applier: Mila in the Milk skin tone, from Insol (dollarbie hunt prize in their current hunt); matching Omega body skin applier is free!
Lipstick Applier: free group gift from D’Selles from last year’s eBENTO Advent calendar
Hair: Bella hair in blonde (free Advent calendar gift from JUMO)
Ballgown: Cannes ballgown (free gift from Son!a Edge from the Valentine’s Day Shop and Hop event)
Necklace and Bracelet: Wild Whimsy by Chop Zuey (former free gift from The Free Dove)
Shoes (Not Shown): Sonnet pumps (free group gift from Hilly Haalan)
Animation Override: Chubby Girl AO by [ImpEle] (free from the SL Marketplace). This is a nice, simple, calm, free AO with no crazy movements. I added a free, separate Bento hand animator from the Altamura Juliet package. I am also using the Basic Animation HUD that was included with the Strong Face head by Genus Project.
TOTAL COST FOR THIS AVATAR: Only L$200! (L$100 to join the Altamura group, L$99 for the Omega system kit for Altamura mesh bodies, and L$1 for the Insol skin applier.) If this isn’t proof that you can have a stunning-looking avatar in Second Life without spending a lot of Linden dollars, I don’t know what is. I mean, that works out to less than one U.S. dollar, folks!
This is genius advertising for Genus Project heads, and if I were Catwa, I would be worried. Akeruka has also been slowly chipping away at Catwa’s lead with semi-annual free group gifts of Bento mesh head gifts over the past few years (although they seem to have stopped now). Other Bento mesh head retailers are having sales more often, I notice. Add in the recent avalanche of free and inexpensive Bakes-on-Mesh compatible Bento mesh heads, and the writing is truly on the wall for Catwa.
It didn’t help that, back in 2018, Catwa threatened rival Bento head creators Akeruka and GA.EG with a lawsuit, saying that they had copied the Catwa head UV map (The Whisperer website has all the receipts). Eventually, Linden Lab was forced to release a statement to respond to the brouhaha. Catwa was widely seen as bullying other, smaller Bento head creators, and as a result the company lost a lot of goodwill and respect among SL users.
The question is: how will Catwa respond to the Bento Head Wars? Will they hold their head high, pretend nothing has changed, and continue to charge L$5,000 for their heads? (To be fair, most other well-known Bento head brands cost a similar amount.) Will they lower their prices, throw more sales, perhaps even give away a free gift of their own?
Things are getting very interesting…please discuss amongst yourselves, and feel free to leave a comment with your own thoughts on the matter. Who do you think is winning the Bento Head Wars?
is truly a shot across the bow at Catwa…
Genus, absolutely. BTW if you go to IDTTY and look to the right of their main desk, they have amazing gift makeup sets, no group needed.
Ooh, THANKS!
It’s called “We Believe” in case you need to use area search.
Some factors that influence bento heads which are rarely discussed are render weight, HUD ease and script count. Not sure about the new genus head, but many of the bento heads you mention require you wear their animation hud which can add a lot! I still favor LAQ heads which have lower script usage and easy to use huds. Genus’ competition strategy isn’t limited to just the free head btw, but they have 40% off all their heads I think – definitely a sign of ‘war’ if the major competitors match that!
Yes, I agree, this is indeed a war.
Don’t forget about Lelutka! They have and have always had some beautiful heads.
Regarding Catwa, I have two, Catwa and Lona, I love them both. I have to say that Catwa has the best animations, the best ability to change the head via the sliders and of course the most brand with head options.. I lost count of how many they have.
I got the free Genus Strong head but noticed quite a few issues with it, it is a pretty head but the sliders are not great with changing the shape. If you notice that you can always pretty much tell when someone is wearing Genus, the default shape of the head doesn’t change much with the sliders. The eyes have glitches, the hud sometimes does not work, the forehead is too big but it’s a very pretty head when static (no animations set). Unfortunately, it is not worth 5500L, but am thankful to get it for free and try it. I think that Genus can make a positive progress if they fix the issues.
Thanks, Rena!