The ongoing global public health crisis that is the coronavirus pandemic has forced many media companies to rethink how they promote their content and attract eyeballs. Flashy, crowded launch parties (with the requisite celebrities and attendant social media influencers) are simply out of the question, and savvier metaverse platforms are neatly stepping into the newly-created marketplace for virtual events.
One such event is taking place in Second Life on Friday, May, 8th: Adult Swim is the first media partnership to use the new limited-release Second Life Viewer. In a press release, Linden Lab reports:
Be among the first to experience live video streaming inside Second Life at an exclusive Adult Swim screening event, held this Friday, May 8 at 4:00 p.m. (SLT/Pacific)/7:00 p.m. (ET).
Watch two classic episodes and two all-new unreleased episodes from the forthcoming second season of “The Shivering Truth” at this special event, to be held in-world at a new venue created exclusively for this screening.
During the event, you can chat with fellow fans of the show and other special guests as you experience the show together for the first time in the virtual world. Free limited-edition virtual gifts and mementos will also be distributed during and after the show — just look for the “Free Gifts” kiosk near the front entrance.
The event also marks the first media partnership utilizing the new limited-release Second Life Viewer, which enables content creators and entertainment companies to broadcast live video events to virtual world audiences. In the future, you may see several new forms of entertainment including movie and TV premieres, live concerts, and artist/fan meet-and-greets. We’re very excited to partner with Adult Swim for the debut of this new feature, which we plan to integrate into the main Second Life Viewer release in the coming weeks.
Those of us who have given up the default Second Life viewer, in favour of more fully-featured alternatives such as Firestorm, will need to download and install the special view from SL before visiting the suitably spooky venue (at this SLURL). I expect that this will be the first of many such media events in future, and no doubt Linden Lab hopes to attract more users to Second Life via these initiatives.
