Most every longtime resident of Second Life has probably heard the expression "prim baby." These are not child avatars, but virtual babies made to look and act much like real ones. They are not new, but have been around since 2006 when Zooby (Carrie Tatsu) began offering them for anyone wanting to pay the fee. A
2013 article by the Second Life Enquirer explains them in some detail.
When animesh became available, Zooby began developing new babies with this technology and began offering them around 2019. No more of the prim, or "Legacy" babies as they were being called officially were made, the focus now being on newer babies and pets, as her
Spotlight interview in 2024 shows. But Zooby continued to support them, as well as the pre-mesh pets made by her.
But a few days ago, there was an announcement from Zooby that the support for the older babies and pets would soon end
We will be phasing out our sculpted legacy products by the end of 2025. This includes:
• Legacy Babies
• Curious Cats and Curious Canines
• Breedable Lemurs
• Trainapet Monkeys
This means you cannot rez them and they will no longer work by 2026.
We will be removing the Breedable Lemurs and Trainapet Monkeys from Market Place and the legacy sim by the end August. We will be removing all other supplies from the legacy sim and Market Place by the end of September.
All legacy sculpted products will be taken offline by January 2026.
Zooby has spent over $13,000 USD just to keep the legacy babies alive even though we stopped selling them in 2019.
We did this for the community. We kept paying even though we earned barely enough profit to pay for the servers.
Illegal adoption agencies continued to sell the babies even though we stopped.
We believe 6 yrs of support for a product we stopped selling and over $13,000 USD was generous and it is time now to retire these.
Zooby has always done our best to support the community and we are sending out this notice now so there are no surprises next year when we take old sculpted legacy products offline.
Zooby will continue to focus, support, maintain and develop all Zooby Animesh related products. We will keep all Animesh products online until Second Life no longer exists.
We hope you understand that it is time now to move on and look to the future and keep our brand fresh and new.
There was nothing in the message of any kind of compensation for the owners of legacy babies and pets.
One owner of a Legacy Zooby baby, wanting to remain anonymous, came to me She was naturally unhappy about this, "It's not quite as bad to most people as the ABC horse situation but I don't know, to some it may be worse as they are their kids. I have not spent as much as some but I did spend probably 200 USD on clothes, furniture, consumables, and the babies and pets over the years. And I do have sentimental attachment to them. They are not even offering a discount or credit towards any of the animesh, even though they are still selling products related to items will cease function by their choice shortly."
What do you the readers think? Do any of you have an older Zooby baby or pet? Feel free to leave comments below.
Image Credit: SL Enquirer
Bixyl Shuftan
