Second Life, Three Rings and Five Forces

Interesting news about 3D game producer Three Rings (who run the popular Puzzle Pirates Game) possibly setting up to compete with Second Life. It will be interesting to see how Second Life responds - I blogged awhile ago that in my view Second Life is probably too complicated for mass market usage, and for the commercial purposes Web 3.D will probably be used for.

At the time I couldn't see where the competition would come from, but nature clear abhors a vacuum, even a virtual one. This Virtual Universe is just playing out an old game, that of real competition. Management guru Michael Porter's 5 Force model notes that:

Four forces -- bargaining power of customers, the bargaining power of suppliers, the threat of new entrants, and the threat of substitute products -- combine with other variables to influence a fifth force, the level of competition in an industry.

What is interesting in Virtual Worlds - and quite a lot of User Generated Content plays - is that the customer and supplier are one, and to an extent they control the build of the substitute product. Interesting.