Millions of users were able to participate in virtual worlds thanks to Second Life over two decades before Facebook and others started talking about the metaverse. After all this time, the game’s creator Linden Labs has now revealed that a mobile version is in the works, according to Ars Technica. Later this year, a beta version is anticipated to go live.

The publisher provided some information on the mobile app in a YouTube video that was submitted to Second Life’s community forum. Unity is being used in its construction primarily to make it simple to create and distribute the game for both iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Also, it demonstrates some character and environment video and how Linden Labs will make it resemble the desktop game as closely as feasible.

Although Second Life has seen over 73 million accounts registered to far and reached 900,000 active players during the epidemic, 17 years after the game’s release, Facebook has struggled to get the metaverse off the ground. According to the corporation, typical virtual events include “live music performances, shopping fairs, fan fiction conventions, book and poetry readings, academic lectures, fashion showcases, and art exhibitions,” according to a 2020 statement to Vice.

Sansar was a VR game that Linden Labs was developing when they ultimately decided to halt production on it and sell the rights in 2020. The business claimed that it done this in order to become “cash-positive,” adding that adoption of VR headsets wasn’t as rapid as it had hoped. A move to mobile makes logical in order to achieve this goal, but it is unclear whether users will still be interested in Second Life after all this time.