The Electric Sheep Company Unveils New Viewer for Second Life

Easy-to-Use Viewer Debuts in Conjunction With CSI: New York Virtual Experience

The Electric Sheep Company, the leading media and technology company focused on virtual worlds, today introduced OnRez, a new viewer for the 3D virtual world Second Life®. As part of its efforts to bring virtual worlds to the mass market, The Electric Sheep Company created the OnRez viewer to improve the Second Life experience and lower the barrier to entry for new users.

OnRez is the first viewer to be commercially licensed by Linden Lab®, the developer of Second Life. The user interface resembles familiar Web browsers and is focused on bringing the Web and virtual worlds closer together. It also combines Second Life features, such as teleporting, with sophisticated OnRez services for virtual shopping and searching. In addition to an easy-to-use user interface, the OnRez viewer also features the ability for users to more effectively browse the Web within the Second Life environment.

The first customized OnRez viewer will be launched in conjunction with the CSI: NY Virtual Experience following the October 24, 2007 broadcast episode of CBS’ CSI: NY. As part of a cross-platform experience, CSI: NY fans can register for the CSI: NY Virtual Experience on the CBS.com Web site. During registration and prior to downloading Second Life, fans will select their avatar on the website. While downloading Second Life, fans will automatically receive the CSI: NY customized OnRez viewer in addition to a customized toolbar to follow a mystery killer on the show through a series of interactive experiences in Second Life.

“The custom viewer is an important part of our cross-platform initiative around CSI: New York,” said Anthony Zuiker, creator of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY. “We wanted to make the transition between the show, the Web and Second Life as seamless as possible. The new viewer makes navigating the virtual world more intuitive and accessible to all of the show’s fans.”

“The OnRez viewer is a great example of the ecosystem of content and software that is being built on top of the Second Life Grid platform,” said Ginsu Yoon, VP of Business Affairs from Linden Lab. “We are supportive of our entire developer community, and The Electric Sheep Company’s technology is no exception — we hope this viewer will be a great option for new and existing Second Life users.”

“Our goal is to make virtual worlds easy and fun to use for the mass-market consumer,” said Sibley Verbeck, CEO of the Electric Sheep Company. “By launching a more intuitive consumer interface, we’re allowing brands to maximize the appeal of their virtual world initiatives. The upcoming CSI: NY Virtual Experience is an innovative example of the opportunities for OnRez.”

Availability

The Electric Sheep Company OnRez viewer for Second Life will be available starting on October 24, 2007. New Second Life users will need to register for the CSI: NY Virtual Experience on the CBS.com site, select and customize an avatar and enter the CSI: NY virtual experience with the OnRez viewer. The viewer will also be available to current Second Life Residents. The Electric Sheep Company plans a steady stream of enhancements to the viewer, both in terms of usability and value-added services.

Key OnRez features:
Redesigned interface to improve the user’s experience
Built-in search, shopping, and virtual currency purchasing services from the OnRez software suite
Improved location navigation allowing users to easily ‘jump back and forth’ among Second Life sites, just as they do on the Web
Improved integration and browsing of the Web from inside the virtual world

About The Electric Sheep Company

Founded in 2005, The Electric Sheep Company (ESC) is the leading media and technology company focused on virtual worlds. Through strategy, meticulous design and a growing base of consumer software, the company is enhancing the virtual world experience by making virtual worlds fun and easy to use. From concept to execution, The Electric Sheep Company delivers insight and services to Fortune 1000 organizations with deep experience and solutions to help them integrate their products and services in virtual worlds. ESC works with all the leading virtual world platforms, including Multiverse, Second Life and There.com. The Electric Sheep Company has conceptualized and created dozens of successful virtual world projects with partners across a wide range on industries such as Bantam Dell, CBS, MLB.com, MTV, The NBA, NBC, Nissan, Paramount, Reuters, Showtime, Swisscom, Warner Bros. and Yahoo. For more information and to view past projects, please visit http://www.electricsheepcompany.com.

For more information about the Second Life Grid, please visit http://secondlifegrid.net.
Contacts

The Electric Sheep Company
Michelle Homes or Sharon Howell, 415-992-4400
esc {at} lewispr(.)com