I last spoke to The Sandbox’s Sebastien Borget way back in Blockchain Gaming World #97 in August 2021 when the subject for discussion was its then-new collaboration with The Walking Dead.
Two a half years on, it could seem not much has changed with the UGC-focused metaverse platform. It’s been in open alpha since early 2022 via three long seasonal events in which content from IP holders ranging from The Walking Dead to Care Bears, Snoop Dogg and organic developers has been rotated for players to experience.
According to Borget, he hopes The Sandbox will move into beta during 2024 but it sounds like v1.0 and the launch of the mobile release are more likely to happen in 2025.
But maybe I’m just being too impatient in my expectations. Building a web3 UGC platform and all the blockchain infrastructure required is no simple matter and that’s before you start to worry about the cold start problem.
Indeed, in that respect, Borget argues the fact that The Sandbox is now home to 1,000 UGC experiences isn’t something to be questioned — is that a lot? — it’s something to be celebrated because these creators will be the first cohort of players, and everything will start to build from that point.
Further context is provided by Nicola Sebastiani, who following roles at Ubisoft, Apple and PlayStation Mobile, is The Sandbox’s newish chief content officer, working with both IP holders and traditional game companies and The Sandbox’s emerging creator class.
As ever, you can also check out an edited transcript of our conversation at BlockchainGamer.biz.
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Calendar
The Machines Arena hits open beta, also APK — 23th April
Forgotten Playground launches — 25th April
Lattice’s Redstone L2 goes live — 1st May
Heroes of Mavia launches its Ruby NFT marketplace — 5th May
Guild of Guardians’ global launch via app stores — 15th May
Next Project Awakening playtest — 21st May
Ragnarok To Ronin news
Originally launched in 2002, the South Korean reimagining inspired by Norse myths, Ragnarok Online has proved to be a highly successful MMORPG in southeast Asia, across various games — +65 million players, +150 million downloads — and other media. And now it’s coming to web3.
IP holder Gravity has signed a deal with Singapore-HQed, Korean-based startup 0X&, which will launch its Ragnarok: Monster World on the Ronin blockchain in Q3 2024.
The game will initially feature tower defense gameplay in PVE and PVP modes. There will also be a guild-based land occupation mode. The Ragmon creatures themselves will be available both as onchain and offchain characters to provide simple onboarding for crypto noobs.
You can sign up at the website now for more information.
Animoca Financial Report news
Getting crypto financials signed off is certainly a *thing* and given the number of fingers Animoca Brands has in various pies, it’s no wonder it struggles when it comes to financial reporting. But now it has released what it calls its “interim unaudited” financial position at 31st March 2024. This lists:
$291 million in cash and stablecoins,
$542 million of illiquid off-balance-sheet tokens from its subsidiaries,
$558 million of liquid digital assets — up $266 million over the quarter,
$1.3 billion of liquid off-balance-sheet tokens from its subsidiaries.
However, continuing unknowns include the value of Animoca’s more than 400 investments in web3 projects, which one would expect to be worth more than $1 billion. The company is also still working on the final audit for its FY21 financials as well as unaudited financials for FY23.
Additional Links
Merit Circle’s treasury is up 70% QoQ to $201 million.
Aavegotchi’s GHST token is now live on Base.
Mighty Action Heroes has a new web3 marketing lead.
Game reward platform Forge has partnered with Xterio.
Flow-centric mobile dev Joyride Games has been hit with layoffs.
My Neighbor Alice is moving into beta, including the addition of P2P trading.
Highlighting the power of southeast Asia, the South Korean won is now the top currency for crypto trading — $456 billion of total volume during Q1.
Check out the Big Blockchain Game Report Q1 2024 👀 here or via PDF.