Next Island

Next Island is one of the new planets coming to Entropia Universe.

Production

Next Island is being developed by Neverdie Studios for the planet partner Next Island LLC. Next Island LLC was founded by David Post and Katlean de Monchy. "Next Island will officially launch in May 2009." ^[1]

The domain nextisland.com was registered on the 9th December 2007. ^[2] "Next Island has been in production since August 2008." ^[3] The official press release announcing Next Island was published on the 16th September 2008. ^[4] Furthermore Next Island was announced at Carolines comedy club on the 22th September 2008. In September 2008 an statement on the official website www.nextisland.com claimed "Next Island’s revolutionary virtual world will launch later this year."^[5] On the 14th May 2009 Next Island creator and chairman David Post asked for numbers of users of virtual worlds on a public forum which might be considered a little odd being asked at that time. ^[6] The planned release was postponed several times considering corresponding statements on several websites. ^[1] Next Island private Beta started in December 2009. ^[7] Open Beta was announced to start in January 2010 together with a call for sign-ups and the promise of free gifts. ^[8] Another (outdated?) Next Island website mentions gifts in from of a "Free Starter Kit" containing a Next Island Hunting weapon, EGGOO launcher, time travel crystal, golf club, beach outfit and towel. ^[9]

(Game) World

The Next Island website contained a "history" page giving information about the discovery of Next Island but the page does not exist anymore and the history of Next Island might have changed... ^[10] Next Island will introduce three different game worlds respectively game ages as they can be accessed by time travel. Those are the paradisiac islands Tutoro Te and Kupu Wahi, the amazon world 400 BC and the ice age.

Gameplay

Considering the activities listed on the Next Island website ^[11], the list of professions Next Island Interim COO Cindy Cook posted ^[12] and the statements regarding the borders of development ("we cannot code") by Jon Jacobs, head of the developer Neverdie Studios ^[3] suggest that the gameplay will not really differ from what is already known on Planet Calypso.