What's next for The Sandbox?

BCGW #188

My feeling is The Sandbox has reached the stage that — even if they cared — most people in the games sector would be very surprised it’s still going strong.

Even within the blockchain gaming sector, many people — me included — were likely impressed its fourth alpha test which ran from October to mid-December was accessed by 580,000 players.

Granted, $7.5 million-worth of SAND tokens were given away in the process, but with the token’s price up 100% over the past couple of months, this now looks like the perfect win-win scenario.

Yet, given the project was first announced in 2018, selling its first land NFTs in 2021, it is fair to ask if progress has been as rapid as it could have been.

Certainly, if you’d told me back then that The Sandbox would still be in alpha at the start of 2025, I’d assume something had gone awry.

---

---

COO Sebastien Borget didn’t confess such in so many words when I spoke to him as part of Blockchain Gaming World episode #188, but he did say that as the project has developed, the vision has become much more nuanced.

So, instead of being focused on the main PC-based metaverse, The Sandbox is becoming a set of more diffuse experiences, connected by interoperable assets such as avatars, tokens and NFTs of various forms.

Anyone with a land NFT and the will to create something can now launch their persistent experience within the PC client — 2,000 are already live.

Building on this, the plan is to operate another four seasonal events during 2025, hopefully with the nomenclature changing from Alpha Season #n to Beta Season #n+1 at some stage. These will be The Sandbox’s main marketing beats, fuelled by big brand activations and SAND tokens giveaways.

The new Voxel Games Program adds another layer as professional game devs using Unity or Unreal Engine plus the VoxelEdit creation tools will start to release standalone games on mobile and PC, leveraging IP from The Sandbox’s brand partners and enabling players to connect their wallets and import their assets.

In this way, Borget argues observers need to change their perspectives. The Sandbox is already live in its earliest form and it will just become more live over time, however long that takes.

You can check out a transcription of our conversation via BlockchainGamer.biz.

---

Sponsored by Hiro Capital: investing 📈 in the future 🔮 of gaming 🎮

---

Calendar

• Boomland play-to-airdrop season 2 starts — 16th January

• Idle RPG Castille launches its pioneer season — 16th January

• Xociety’s spotlight playtest starts — 18th January

• Neo Olympus’ Prime Core presale — 21st January

• BlockchainGamer.biz launches its Top 50 2025 list — 21st January

• Neo Olympus’ Prime Core public mint — 22nd January

• Forkast’s TGE on Ronin — 28th January

• Yuga Labs’ Otherside metaverse launches — June TBC

Marblex Rebrands news

• As it transitions to Immutable, Netmarble’s Marblex blockchain platform has rebranded using the term “Fun Comes First”. It’s also gone for a toxic green color and added a goblin mascot called Goby. Just, because…

  

KOLs In The Trough news

• I wonder why Grails and Dingaling are so bullish on the forthcoming Infinigods’ GOD token launch? 🤔 For the record, I’m ranked 5,123th and hence less bullish!