Millions of Us Brings Scion into Second Life
Published on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 by reubenThis weekend at the Second Life Community Convention, we announced that we were bringing Scion into Second Life. This makes Scion the first automaker to enter Second Life and we’re super excited about what we’re going to be doing with them.
Image below from Intellagirl’s Flickr set.
The first vehicle we chose to produce was the iconic Scion xB — a perfect choice for Second Life because of its squarish, low-riding shape (easier to build from “prims”) and the company’s obsession with custimizable and self expression. To carry out the task, we tapped Second Life legend Francis Chung, maker of the famous Dominus Shadow - a version of which recently sold for US$ 2000 at an auction to benefit the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in Second Life.
For the launch, the Millions of Us team of Green Fate, Chris Lake, myself and Francis Chung decided to blur the line between real life and Second Life for dramatic effect. We all donned royal blue jumpsuits (our uniform in the virtual world). Next, we convinced the local Scion dealer to lend us a silver xB — no small feat considering the conversation began like this, “We’re going to be launching a virtual version of the Scion xB into the virtual world of Second Life”.
On Saturday, we showed up with the real car. In Second Life, Cyrus Huffhines had been given 20 advanced copies and told to await the signal — a horn blast from real life, before dropping the virtual Scion on people in Second Life. We gathered a crowd in the parking lot of the convention in Fort Mason, and as the cold wind whipped off the bay, I asked everyone to help me count down from ten. When we reached the count of one, the signal was given and Green Fate drove the real Scion through the parking lot. As he made a hard left and disappeared behind a building, he slammed on the horn and Cyrus began giving out xB’s. The Scion had crossed over and become virtual!
Above is a photo of the Real Life launch. Below is one of me standing next to the virtual version in the New Globe Theater on the Millions of Us sim in Second Life.
Finally, as a treat for everyone, here’s a great launch video made by Nylon Pinkney.
We’re planning a full launch for Scion in October, at which time there will be customizable versions of the cars and much more. In the meantime, if you’d like a first edition Scion xB, please IM Cyrus Huffhines in world.
This entry was filed under News, Press Coverage, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 24th, 2006 at 12:06 am
[…] [1] Bilder vom virtuellen Scion auf Flickr. [2] Auf Youtube gibts ein Video des virtuellen Scion. [3] Als Agentur f√ºr Scion fungiert Millions of us und f√ºr Adidas arbeitet rivers run red. [4] Mehr zur virtuellen Steuerkanzlei bei notizen aus der provinz [5] Businessweek √ºber amazon und Second Life. [6] Text 100 in Second Life. [7] NMC Einf√ºhrung in Second Life via Notizen aus der Provinz. Trackback URL […]
September 3rd, 2006 at 8:37 pm
[…] When I saw that Toyota had decided to bring their Scion brand into Second Life I knew that I had to have one. After a couple of quick IMs (Instant Messages) I was lucky enough to get one of the first ones. Amazingly enough it was the same model and color as my real life Scion. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take some pictures: […]
September 6th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
[…] Some interesting updates on brands in Secondlife: – Update on the progress of the in-world Amazon store. – Adidas-Reebokis rumored to get in soon. – And so is Toyota Scion (here and here). Update [Aug.23]: more details at Millions of Us, the company that brought Scion in SL). – CNet writes about a Baltimore accounting firm setting up shop in Second Life. […]
October 1st, 2006 at 11:07 am
[…] Related links: Moopf;¬† Second Life Herald account of Mark Warner’s Second Life appearance; about Starwood’s in-world project; about Toyota/Scion’s Second Life marketing. […]
December 2nd, 2006 at 9:43 am
[…] For those thinking about following suite I recommend watching this interview with Millions of Us (MOU) founder Reuben Steiger interview over on The Podtech Network. Reuben tells the story of how MOU brought Scion into SL and the lessons learned along the way. […]
February 11th, 2007 at 10:48 am
[…] With the XD launch / virtual advertising campaign (geez, the line between reality and virtuality is blurring, eh?), Toyota officials even held a press conference in Tokyo and also in Second Life. Today, Second Lifers can play with the XD online. […]
March 6th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Now even whole cities there are in Second Life:
Manchester recreates city in Second Life
http://callfromnextlife.blogspot.com/2007/02/manchester-recreates-city-in-second.html
October 15th, 2007 at 6:57 am
[…] Steiger, CEO of Millions of Us showed some awesome films made in Second Life that take Scion City into new […]
November 14th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
[…] With the XD launch / virtual advertising campaign (geez, the line between reality and virtuality is blurring, eh?), Toyota officials even held a press conference in Tokyo and also in Second Life. Today, Second Lifers can play with the XD online. […]
March 14th, 2008 at 8:56 am
[…] With the XD launch / virtual advertising campaign (geez, the line between reality and virtuality is blurring, eh?), Toyota officials even held a press conference in Tokyo and also in Second Life. Today, Second Lifers can play with the XD online. […]
April 17th, 2008 at 9:00 am
[…] car brands not scared of experimenting with virtual worlds. Where they first hired Million of Us to bring their ‘Scion’ in Second Life, and later on launched that same Scion in the virtual world There with some help from […]
June 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
it’s a great build, ou did nicely with it, and yes . . . i had to pick up a scion inworld
lol, it goes pretty fast though, i think your prims must be hollow or non-physical, the physics engine for sl takes into account the material that prims are “made” of. but hey! it’s a fast car isl!