What’s new in The Sandbox? Follow all our latest news on updates in the web3 gaming metaverse.
25th March: A new milestone can be ticked off by The Sandbox, which has now seen more than 1000 user generated experiences published on its map. While many more games have likely been created using The Sandbox‘s VoxEdit tools and Game Maker, not all users have utilised Land NFTs to self-publish their experiences in the metaverse.
Indeed, over 330,000 users, including 200 professional developers, have used the Game maker and VoxEdit tools to create NFTs, games and various experiences over the last 12 months.
The Sandbox now boasts over 5.7 million all-time accounts, more than 25,000 Land NFT owners, as well as 60,000 sold avatars and over 200,000 wallets holding SAND.
To mark the occasion, The Sandbox has announced it’s rewarding creators with an additional 500,000 SAND, which will be added to its Builders’ Challenge creator program. Spanning over 10 weeks, the Builder’s Challenge initially launched with a 1 million SAND pool ($475,000) on 12th February, as an incentive for its community to create and publish engaging experiences on the map.
21st March: On the back of their wildlife exploration trip to Antarctica earlier in 2024, The Sandbox co-founders Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borget have hinted at forthcoming deforestation initiatives in The Sandbox.
“Seeing the effects of climate change on such a beautiful region of our planet led us to consider ways that we can help. Now more than ever, we’re committed to creating a tangible impact by offsetting the carbon footprint generated by our players, community, and platform. We aim to link our virtual LANDs, avatars, and blockchain activities directly to the regeneration of forests and buying carbon credits,” they wrote in a blogpost following their journey.
Now the first project has been announced. In collaboration with WeForest, a charity working for global forest restoration and conservation, and South Africa-based Addo Football Youth Academy (afya), The Sandbox is launching Path to Glory.
Created by game developer PuzzleBros, the experience revolves around forest conservation and the importance of community involvement in tackling climate change. Players will be able to visit the South African virtual city of Addo, including its National Park, Citrus Plantations, and the forests in the Katanino and Malawi area.
Path to Glory showcases a forest where trees are being cut down, and players will be able to buy NFT Seeds in order to grow new trees in The Sandbox, which will also have the NFT holders name on them. More significantly, each NFT purchased is seen as a donation representing a real tree that WeForest will grow or protect as part of their projects.
The Path to Glory experience is set to launch on Earth Day, 22nd April.
13th February: To incentivise new creators, The Sandbox is kicking off its creator fund with a 1 million SAND ($475,000) challenge. Spanning over 10 weeks, The Builder’s Challenge encourages creators to make engaging experiences in The Sandbox, with the share of rewards being determined by three factors:
- Player engagement: The more players engage with an experience, the greater the rewards.
- Community growth: The more experiences are published, the larger the SAND pool. Every week that sees over 100 experiences created will increase the prize pool.
- Session length: The rewards are also based on the time players engage with an experience.
Starting on 12th February, the event closes on 22nd April 2024.
5th February: The unlock of The Sandbox utility token SAND is expected later this month, 14th February.
206 million token, or 9%, of the token’s circulating supply will be unlocked, which is currently worth around $90 million. The total supply of SAND tokens is 3 billion and with this unlock, 86% of them will be circulating.
Although the approaching unlock hasn’t turned the downward trend of the price of SAND, it seems to have slowed its decrease. While the token is down 44% over the last year, it’s down only 12% over the last month and 5.2% during the last 7 days, as per Coingecko.
More generally, SAND is down 95% since its all-time high in November 2021, but ultimately up 1,385% since its all-time low a year earlier.
12th December: In its latest event called Season’s Greetings, The Sandbox has designed a reward system aimed both at onboarding new players as well as rewarding its existing community. With a generous reward pool totalling 600,000 SAND, 100,000 SAND is up for grabs for everyone playing the game. 200,000 SAND are for avatar holders and half of the pot is designated to LAND holders.
IPs such as The Walking Dead, Warner Music, The Little Prince, Zeptolab, Playboy, Invincible, Gordon Ramsay and DanceFight are among the 60 various experiences playable throughout the event. Running for 43 days during the peak of winter celebrations, the experiences are designed to immerse players into the spirit of winter with snowy landscapes and festive decorations.
Available from 11th December through 22nd January, The Sandbox can be downloaded to PC here. Users need to create an account, and to claim rewards in Season’s Greetings players will need to go through KYC and clear anti-fraud check.
4th December: Two months following its 0.8 release, The Sandbox has launched a major update to its Game Client. Described as one of the most significant updates yet – the current version is 0.9.7 – new key elements include
- completely revamped UI,
- the introduction of gameplay features such as oxygen consumption, fall damage and buffs and debuffs,
- multiplayer features such as rankings and
- a new metaverse map available on the dashboard.
To provide overall smoother game performance, The Sandbox has also revamped the engine in Game Client 0.9 leading to faster loading times and better camera and navigation functions.
Reading through the changelog, we also noticed the mention of “implemented graphics quality settings segmentation to support lower-end mobile devices,” which suggests that The Sandbox is preparing to release a mobile version in 2024, although it’s currently unclear whether it would be able to do this via the app stores.
The Sandbox and Ubisoft drop Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix avatar collection
The Sandbox and Ubisoft have teamed up to launch an avatar collection based on Ubisoft TV production Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix. Each of the 3,000 avatars has been created in collaboration with Ubisoft, and will enable The Sandbox users to play as citizens of Eden in the metaverse, while also being able to earn SAND.
Launched on Netflix in October, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix is an animated series inspired by Ubisoft’s 2013 video game title Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.
Containing a total of 3,000 avatars, the collection is scheduled for mint 29th November, with allowlist registrations opening 21st November via HeyMint.
The Sandbox set for Cinerama LAND sale 23rd November
The Sandbox has opened registrations for its Cinerama LAND sale raffle which gives users a chance of buying 1 of the totally 487 Cinerama LANDs available. Raffle results will be announced Thursday 23rd followed by the official LAND sale taking place between 23rd-27th November. At the same time, LAND sale auctions start on Opensea.
Cinerama LAND owners could end up with neighbours such as Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, Peaky Blinders, The Walking Dead or Clay Nation, to mention a few.
“Ominous” Game Jam in collaboration with Avenged Sevenfold
Registrations are now open for The Sandbox‘s upcoming Game Jam, which is being released in collaboration with US-based heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. Successful contestants have a chance of getting their games published on the band’s virtual LAND in the metaverse. In addition, creators have a chance of a share from the $15,000 prize pool, which will be distributed in SAND tokens.
Using The Sandbox’s free no-code Game Maker software, with the option of using its VoxEdit software for custom assets, anyone can take part in the Jam by building an experience around the theme of “something ominous lurking in the dark”. However, the full theme will be revealed at the Game Jam kick-off on 13th November. Following this, participants will have until 4th December to submit their games.
The Sandbox buys 111 LAND NFTs to reward its most talented creators
The team behind The Sandbox is preparing for its first global Creators Day in Hong Kong on 3rd November, where creators, brands and The Sandbox’ vast catalogue of partners will meet to pave the way ahead for the leading web3 metaverse.
Ahead of the event, The Sandbox has announced on X that it’s begun a LAND Ignition Initiative to ensure its most dedicated and talented creators get access to LAND for building their metaverse experiences.
To achieve this, the team has purchased 111 LAND NFTs from secondary markets which will become available though Game Jam and other reward contests.
Drecom’s Eternal Crypt — Wizardry BC joins The Sandbox
A collaboration between The Sandbox and mobile game developer Drecom has been announced, enabling the Wizardry franchise to bring its web3 experiences to the metaverse.
Earlier in October, Drecom announced a partnership with Animoca Brands Japan, with a joint intention to expand web3 gaming globally. As part of the efforts, the Drecom-licensed Wizardry IP, which has been adapted to blockchain through Eternal Crypt — Wizardry BC, will be integrated on Animoca Brands’ ecosystem. First stop is The Sandbox, with additional social and gaming experiences aimed at The Sandbox’s 5 million strong user base and players of Eternal Crypt — Wizardry BC.
“We are delighted to be partnering with The Sandbox, a leading company in the Web3 industry. Not only will we have the opportunity to bring “Eternal Crypt — Wizardry BC -” to the many users of The Sandbox, also we hope to learn a lot from their global success in the Web3 space as we work together to boost the Web3 industry,” commented Drecom representative director for Eternal Crypt — Wizardry BC Yuki Naito.
T&B Media Global partners with The Sandbox
Thailand-based entertainment company T&B Media Global has partnered with The Sandbox. Set to bring its Mittaria IP and other story-driven experiences to the metaverse, the collaboration aims to advance The Sandbox’s broader vision of interoperability and seamless navigation between interconnected worlds.
The Sandbox co-founder and COO Sebastien Borget commented, “We are delighted to join hands with T&B Media Global. Their expertise in storytelling and our commitment to cutting-edge technology create a synergy that promises to reshape the landscape of virtual experiences.”
“Together, we will provide users with an unprecedented level of access to immersive storytelling and entertainment, bridging the gap between imagination and reality,” added T&B Media founder and CEO Dr. Jwanwat Ahriyavraromp.
Aavegotchi coming to The Sandbox, 25th October
While brewing under the surface for a while, following the recent launch of its Gotchi-themed Game Center, Aavegotchi has officially announced its partnership with The Sandbox. The launch of its game built in The Sandbox is set to go live Wednesday 25th October, including over 20,000 Aavegotchi NFTs and rewards of over 50K SAND and 5000 GHST distributed between game participants.
No Aavegotchi is required to play the game, however owning one might unlock special benefits.
Clay Nation’s Cardano-based NFTs now compatible with The Sandbox
From Tuesday 26th September, holders of a Clay Nation NFT can unlock its voxel twin VOX-CLAY, which serves as a passport to Clay Nation’s playable experience in The Sandbox.
To do this, users will have to connect their Cardano wallet to a Polygon wallet via Clay Nation’s event listener. This enables the use of VOX-CLAYs in The Sandbox, while keeping the original Clay Nation NFT securely within the Cardano wallet.
Created by the Clay Nation team, this is the first NFT bridge between Cardano and Polygon, where blockchain is proving NFT ownership on Cardano for Polygon interoperability and compatibility with The Sandbox.
The Sandbox, Unstoppable Domains and Smobler announce new metaverse experience
The Sandbox has announced a new partnership with web3 domain provider Unstoppable Domains and The Sandbox-backed metaverse developer Smobler.
Together the trio will launch an in-game adventure called the Unstoppable Experience. Slated for release later in 2023, the experience will include new games, prizes, wearables, and the opportunity for players to acquire exclusive domains.
In additional The Sandbox news, sign-ups for the Lion City Land sale raffle has opened, with the sale starting on 27th September.
Soccer manga Captain Tsubasa avatars coming to The Sandbox
Japanese soccer manga Captain Tsubasa is bringing its avatar collection and playable experience to The Sandbox.
A total of 2060 Tsubasa avatars, designed by the manga’s creator Yoichi Takahashi, will be minted. These are part of Tsubasa’s middle school team and Hyuga’s middle school team from the original series, with the addition of exclusive goalkeeper avatars that are unique to the collection.
Moreover, each avatar features a special Tsubasa styled football themed animation and will enable holders to participate in Captain Tsubasa experiences. Players will also be able to complete quests in return for rewards from a prize pool of 100,000 SAND.
Registration opens Tuesday 5th September and ends Monday 11th, followed by the official mint on Tuesday 12th September.
Agoria and The Sandbox launch self-transforming avatars
In partnership with French artist and DJ Agoria, The Sandbox has announced the upcoming launch of Agorians avatar collection. Being the first ever web3 avatar collection with an automatic appearance transformation, the avatar will transform every six hours aligning itself to the real life time of day.
Following the launch, Agoria’s first playable experience, One Life Two Bodies, will become available in the metaverse. From 7th-21st September avatar holders can play One Life Two Bodies, embarking on exclusive quests and in-game requirements, while also having a chance to receive a part of the 100,000 SAND prize pool.
For more details, see the full announcement.
Anime NFT platform Hinata joins The Sandbox
Anime NFT marketplace Hinata by Metagen NFT Labs has announced a new partnership with The Sandbox.
While not many details have been revealed yet, Hinata’s experience in the metaverse will enable players to travel through various lands accompanied by the bravest of waifus.
ZeptoLabs’ Cut the Rope experience in The Sandbox
Cut the Rope game studio ZeptoLab’s partnership with The Sandbox has brought forth a new Om Nom-themed experience in the metaverse.
Called the Om Nom Social Hub, the event offers Om Nom avatar holders an immersive combination of the familiar Cut the Rope franchise, its Om Nom IP, and the virtual world of The Sandbox.
“We were thrilled to combine the familiar magic of Cut the Rope with the new opportunities to play provided by The Sandbox virtual world. As a result, players will get a feeling that they have been transported into a whole new world — permeated with nostalgia but full of fresh challenges”, commented business development director at ZeptoLab Kristina Truvaleva.
The initial Om Nom Social Hub event is exclusive to holders of Om Nom avatars, which were recently announced to have sold out, but will become available to everyone later in 2023. Running between 10th-18th August, the Om Nom Social Hub includes a reward pool of 120,000 SAND for players who complete all quests and in-game requirements.
For more details, visit The Sandbox’s medium.
Elvis Presley mints in The Sandbox
One of the most high-profile musical avatars are ready for minting in The Sandbox. The Elvis Presley Collection will be released Tuesday 8th August.
In the first stage of the mint only allow listed users, The Sandbox native avatars, land owners and those who have registered through heymint.xyz can take part. Two avatars per wallet can be minted within a 24-hour time period, priced at 100 SAND.
As of the second stage of the mint, the public sale is slated for Wednesday 9th August, where users can mint up to four avatars per wallet.
Revealed on 11th August, each Elvis avatar will be playable in all of The Sandbox’s future multiplayer experiences. More generally, holding avatars within the metaverse will unlock special features and content and serve as way to earn SAND through gameplay.
For more details, visit the Elvis avatar collection page.
D.OASIS bringing new experiences to the metaverse
NFT and metaverse agency D.OASIS is the latest in line to be announced to enter The Sandbox. The partnership will offer players new experiences in D.OASIS City, as well as exclusive benefits such as discounts and promotions from a range of new partnership brands and celebrities. These include Warrix Sports, Dhurakij Pundit University, Index Creative Village, Eventpass, Prakit advertising, and more.
The Sandbox joins hands with the British Museum
Another partnership has been announced, with the British Museum entering The Sandbox.
Looking to offer users digital experiences and NFTs based on the British Museum’s collections, the metaverse joins forces with the museum’s licensing partner laCollection. The latter serves as an NFT hub for museums around the world. Together the two will create NFTs and experiences showcasing historic pieces from the British Museum since its foundation in 1753.
“We are very excited to collaborate with the British Museum to share its incredible collections to new audiences in the metaverse. This is a great opportunity for The Sandbox players, regardless of where they are, to learn about and enjoy the amazing collections of human history, art, and culture in the British Museum,” said COO and co-founder of The Sandbox Sebastien Borget.
The first step towards a fully open metaverse
A first milestone in one of The Sandbox’s long standing intentions to become a fully open metaverse has been reached. Landowners can now submit their early user generated content (UGC) for early launch approval before the major launch later in 2023. Additionally, users can create their own page to market the experience by making it visible at the Land’s location on the map.
Looking to enable the UGC-feature to all The Sandbox Landowners before the end of 2023, this is a first major step in the metaverse’s ambition to empower creative freedom and fuel the worldwide virtual creator economy.
In a statement it says, “Publishing is incredibly exciting to all in The Sandbox ecosystem because it will empower participants by furthering creative freedom and enhancing diversity in the entertainment and gaming industries”.
Infinite Pulse expansion and Land sale
The Sandbox’s music hub Infinite Pulse keeps expanding. Recently added to the musical haven is one of the world’s leading marketplaces for DJs and fans of electronic music, Beatport.
Another recent inclusion of electronic dance music is Swedish duo Galantis.
Also announced to join Infinite Pulse is Dutch artist and musician Young & Sick.
The Inifinte Pulse Land sale is set to start Friday 14th July at 12pm UTC and run for a duration of 4 days.
MetaFight experience coming to The Sandbox
MMA management game MetaFight is entering The Sandbox. The MMA-themed experience will enable users a build their gyms, train up fighters and battle against other players in the eight sided virtual octagon, with new rewards for the most succesful competitors.
“This partnership plays to both of our strengths with MetaFight’s knowledge of MMA gaming and our expansive metaverse and unique gameplay opportunities”, commented The Sandbox’s COO and co-founder Sebastien Borget.
The Sandbox reveals Lion City neighborhood as part of its Asian expansion
Animoca Brands’ subsidiary The Sandbox has released its Singaporean neighborhood Lion City as part of its Singapore Partner Day event. An experience that’s been in development by the metaverse’s local Singapore team for 9 months, the neighborhood consists of 512 virtual land NFTs in the decentralized virtual world Lion City.
A nation which has been at the forefront of innovation and web3 advancements, Singapore was an easy pick for The Sandbox when looking to expand in the southeast Asia region, one of the metaverse’s strongest areas in terms of users, according to COO and co-founder Sebastien Borget.
This is also in line with Animoca Brands’ co-founder and chairman Yat Sui’s recent statements of how the company is looking to expand in regions with more progressive crypto legislation — Singapore and Hong Kong being two of the highest regarded in this respect.
With over 400 global brands including Singapore’s DBS bank already onboard, Lion City is intended to serve as a gateway and launchpad for Southeast Asia, with 35 new brands recently announced to join the metaverse.
“The Sandbox team has laid the foundation for expanding Metaverse opportunities in Singapore by partnering with over 30 brands and IPs. Additionally, we have certified 8 local agencies and will continue to onboard new partners, positioning Singapore as a global hub in web3 and the Metaverse”, says Borget.
Music themed LAND sale Infinite Pulse launches
Set out to become the number one music hub in the metaverse, The Sandbox has launched its latest LAND sale Infinite Pulse. Aimed particularly at music creators, fans, artists, and music brands wanting to make their way in web3, the LAND sale is themed around The Sandbox’s new music neighborhood.
Among some of the plans are virtual concerts and live jam sessions with each LAND owner being able to customize their LANDs with music studios and venues, and more. At its core is a vision of building a decentralized global community for music enthusiasts.
Some of the prominent brands already present in the neighborhood are Warner Music Group, Slipknot, Pixelynx, Blond:ish, Manifest and Elvis Presley.
The Pickaxe Master NFTs playable in The Sandbox
As the metaverse’s first mining experience, The Pickaxe Master will bridge to The Sandbox on Thursday 22nd June. What started as a board game in 2020 turned into an adaptation of a board game in The Sandbox in 2022. Now The Pickaxe Masters’ Lucky Miner NFTs, which launched on Polygon 1st June, can be combined, become clans and families, and will be playable avatars in the metaverse from 22nd June.
Collab with Nuclear Blast to build heavy metal experience
Music keeps playing an integral part to the development of The Sandbox’s cultural experiences. A new partnership has been announced with German independent record label Nuclear Blast, renown for its signing and fostering of some of the most prominent names on the heavy metal scene.
As part of the partnership, a new experience called Blast Valley, including a heavy metal environment created by fans of the genre will enter the metaverse.
“Heavy metal belongs in our platform and provides the opportunity for tremendous creative expression, resulting in an immersive world unlike any other. We’re tremendously excited to make The Sandbox the home of the genre in the metaverse, and look forward to participating in the novel experiences that will launch in Blast Valley”, said The Sandbox‘s COO and co-founder Sebastien Borget.
Partnership with Forkast Labs to index metaverse assets
The Sandbox partners up with global web3 intelligence company Forkast Labs to revolutionize the way digital assets are valued.
As part of the collaboration, Forkast will provide comprehensive coverage and insights into the blockchain games industry as well as utilize Forkast’s multichain infrastructure to make sure that The Sandbox gets increased exposure in global media.
“This is the first and most important step in the maturing of the digital asset space. We are developing the requisite standards that investors, funds, users, and firms will need to agnostically determine value,” commented co-CEO and co-founder of Forkast Labs Angie Lau.
Forkast will produce metaverse indexes for fashion, gaming, music, and other NFT assets in The Sandbox, which means that its partners like Warner Music Group, Gucci Vault, Ubisoft, and about 400 more brand partners would be able to track their assets’ marketing performance in real-time.
“Partnering with Forkast Labs will bring more on-chain data analysis and in-depth articles about the activities happening in the metaverse, contributing to more transparency and a better understanding of how this new technology is transforming the habits and metrics of users exploring and engaging with virtual worlds,” commented co-founder and COO of The Sandbox Sebastien Borget.
Cross-chain interoperability and new experience with Clay Nation
The Sandbox has announced a new partnership with Cardano-based clay animation, NFT and metaverse project Clay Nation. Together they plan to make a step toward cross-chain interoperability. Notably, Clay Nation is the first Cardano project to enter The Sandbox.
As a result of this collaboration, Clay Nation holders will now be able to use their avatars in The Sandbox. Further, Clay Nation will be teaming up with metaverse architects Smobler Studios to bring the Sonic Sands experience to the 2×2 LAND as well as a social hub to the 1×1 LAND.
Sonic Sands will feature ten quests, mini-games, and two social spaces, which are Sonic Sands Central and a concert area.
Collabs with Bilibili International and CryptoNatty
The Sandbox has announced new strategic partnerships with Bilibili International and its authorized crypto-native platform CryptoNatty. The entities plan to create immersive experiences and virtual gaming application scenarios in a virtual space.
With this partnership, The Sandbox will enable the seamless integration of Cheers UP, the first NFT collection by CryptoNatty. To start things off, two Cheers UP pixel-style characters will be integrated into the metaverse.
“We are thrilled to partner with Bilibili International to bring unique content into The Sandbox. We strongly believe that the combination of Bilibili International’s vibrant community and The Sandbox’s immersive metaverse will create extraordinary experiences for users,” commented COO and co-founder of The Sandbox Sebastien Borget.
Cultural icon The Little Prince experience in the metaverse
French media and entertainment producer Mediawan Kids & Family is collaborating with The Sandbox to bring a new experience based on its iconic character The Little Prince to the metaverse. Marking the 80th anniversary since the book’s first publication, The Little Prince immersive experience will be available to The Sandbox’ global audience.
President of Mediawan Kids & Family Julien Borde comments, “Kids & Families around the world dream with the Little Prince since 80 years and we are thrilled to explore new ways of storytelling to perpetuate Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s values and bring them to new audiences.”
Via its main label Method Animation, Mediawan Kids & Family has been working with the Saint-Exupéry-d’Agay estate for many years to adapt the world of The Little Prince to today’s audiences.
“Bringing The Little Prince – one of the most globally known cultural icons of our times – into The Sandbox open metaverse is a meaningful moment for me,” said COO and co-founder of The Sandbox Sebastien Borget.
Korean TV network Channel A bringing new content to The Sandbox
South Korean cable TV network Channel A is bringing new IPs and broadcasting to The Sandbox. With shows like “The Fishermen and the Sea”, “The Iron Squad” and dating show “Heart Signal”, the broadcaster is looking to bring their IPs to the metaverse, as well as create new NFTs and contents that couldn’t be showcased on the shows.
“We are looking forward to collaborating with other companies in more engaging and enjoyable ways on the new platforms. We anticipate that collaborations that were once done only offline can now also take place in the metaverse,” comments Channel A.
BBC finds new home in the metaverse
A new trio has been announced in the web3 space, consisting of The Sandbox, BBC Studios and web3 specialist Reality+. Aiming to bring new experiences to the metaverse, its users can look forward to content from brands like Top Gear and Doctor Who.
“I’m delighted that BBC Studios is partnering with Reality+ and The Sandbox on this exciting venture. While the metaverse is still in its infancy, it may shape how we consume and experience entertainment in the future and I’m looking forward to seeing how fans interact with our brands in this space“, said president of brands & licensing at BBC Studios Nicki Sheard.
With this collaboration BBC is entering new ground as it’s the company’s first established home in the metaverse.
COO and co-founder at The Sandbox, Sebastien Borget, added, “We’re proud that BBC Studios chose Reality+, a certified metaverse agency partner working on The Sandbox platform, to enter the metaverse with top global brands like Doctor Who and Top Gear. The BBC has a history of pioneering content that leverages the latest technology and putting it into mainstream households. We think this venture is an important step to bringing British culture and fans into virtual worlds.”
Looking to put sustainability at its core, with Offsetra and Nori to boost carbon offsetting and WeForest helping with reforestation efforts, the project is set to launch later in 2023.
New avatars by Paris Hilton
According to a new tweet by celebrity and entrepreneur Paris Hilton, she will be dropping new
avatars in The Sandbox. The upcoming 5,555 avatars are all set to feature Hilton’s iconic looks
and costumes. The allowlist for the avatars opens on May 24th.
Players also have a chance to get their hands on 11 1-of-1 NFTs, which are also the tickets to
Hilton’s sold out show in LA. Further details of minting and sales will be revealed soon.
Reaching 1 million gasless transactions
Every day we see new partnerships announced in the web3 games industry, some more significant than others.
One such collaboration was recently highlighted by The Sandbox, as a reminder of how far the leading web3 metaverse has come since February 2022. At the time it signed a deal with Biconomy to provide gasless transactions for migrating LAND, following a flagged vulnerability in the smart contract.
Since first being deployed on Polygon and bridging its LAND and SAND token in 2022, The Sandbox and its community have completed 1 million “gasless transactions”, with the help of Biconomy. 200,000 unique wallets have benefited with The Sandbox paying 18,000 MATIC to cover the gas for these users’ transactions.
And now the company has announced plans to similarly cover all transactions and fees that would have been paid in the SAND token.
“Building on Polygon offers us the opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint and optimize on-chain transactions to reduce costs for our community. We couldn’t be more excited to continue along this path as pioneers of developing a greener metaverse ecosystem”, The Sandbox states in a blogpost.
South Korean pop, village and NFTs enter the metaverse
Owned by Cube Entertainment, one of the top entertainment companies in South Korea, K-Village is a space in The Sandbox where Korean culture gets represented, with several landmarks from
Seoul, IPs and much more.
Holders of one of the new K-Village NFTs can enter a draw and have a chance to win an
Anibear T-shirt. Holders who have all of the 20 K-village NFTs will get an Anibear NFT as a reward.
Anicube, a joint venture between Cube Entertainment and Animoca Brands, has further announced K-pop performances for their Music Metaverse theme. All of these events are set to take place on the musician planet and mainstage. Additionally, the Anicube NFT collection has dropped and it includes collectibles like music drone, music bot, Anibear hologram, and more.
As in the case of the K-Village NFT collection, if players own an Anicube NFT they can win an Anibear T-shirt, and those who own all 20 Anicube NFTs will be rewared with an Anibear NFT.
Both the K-Village NFT collection and the Anicube collection will be available for purchase through The
Sandbox marketplace from May 11th, 2023.
Interoperability in focus with Affyn partnership
“We couldn’t be more excited to unveil our partnership with The Sandbox. Our shared belief and
vision of an open metaverse is the driving force behind this collaboration,” commented Lucaz
Lee, the CEO and co-founder of Affyn.
Singaporean web3 game developer Affyn has partnered with The Sandbox to create interoperable metaverse experiences. Affyn is focused on creating Nexus World, a mobile free-to-play, play-and-earn, geolocation-based metaverse.
“We’re excited to see more platforms embracing interoperability as a choice rather than working in
independent silos and we hope that this brings forth more creative opportunities and exciting
use-cases to collaboratively grow the metaverse experience,” said the Head of Singapore Sandbox, George Wong.
In the upcoming keynote event Evolution on May 10th, Affyn will share glimpses of its metaverse Nexus World. More details about their projects, where The Sandbox is one of the main partners, are also set to be revealed.
Get creative in the Steve Aoki Game Jam
Steve Aoki has teamed up with The Sandbox for Steve Aoki Game Jam. Starting from May 8th,
players can submit their entries inspired by the music artist, with the goal to explore Aoki’s
perspective and create a game experience around it.
The best games will receive a reward from the 50,000 SAND prize pool, and 100 participants
will be rewarded 100 SAND each. Apart from this, there are awards for best idea and best
design.
The deadline for the submission is May 21st, at 3pm UTC. Following the voting, which will take place May 22nd till June 4th, the results will be announced on June 10th, 2023. For more details, rules, and T&Cs, check out the competition post.
Gamer Arena partnership events launched
The Sandbox and Gamer Arena, one of Turkey’s leading gaming platforms, partner up to bring unique, interactive experiences to the metaverse.
Through this collaboration Gamer Arena’s “Challenge & Earn” model will be integrated with The Sandbox’s model of “Play, Create, Earn”. Gamer Arena is looking to leverage blockchain technology and deliver immersive, interactive experiences through The Sandbox. Users will be able to participate in various virtual events, compete against each other, showcase their skills and earn rewards in SAND and GAU.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with The Sandbox, as it represents a new frontier in gaming and offers us the opportunity to create cutting-edge experiences for our users,” commented Gamer Arena’s CEO Kerim Yılmaz.
The events will go live on May 2nd, and be available for 14 days. Users can experience various tournaments sponsored by The Sandbox in the Gamer’s Arena.
For more details about the events, visit the Gamer Arena platform.
The Mega City 3 LAND sale raffle is live
With 17 various partnerships, the cultural hub of Greater China Mega City 3, is hosting the third phase of its LAND sale in The Sandbox. The raffle started on April 26th, while the LAND sale and auction will go live on May 11th.
To be a part of the raffle, users are required to have at least 1,011 SAND, bridged to Polygon, in their wallets. Starting on April 26th at 3PM UTC, the raffle will conclude on May 11th at 11AM UTC. Users can
grab from 222 regular LANDs and 12 premium LANDs. Both raffles will run simultaneously.
The premium LANDs are themed closely with the IPs like Angela Ho, Macau EC, Meet48, and
more. Premium NFTs are bundled with the premium LANDs, so owner will receive NFTs as well.
As a part of this sale, players can purchase
- 222 Regular LANDs
- 12 Premium LANDs
- 6 Estates
- 12 1×1 LANDs
The winners of the raffle will then be able to buy their LAND from May 11th to May 15th. The
Mega City 3 LAND sale second chance auctions are scheduled for May 15th to May 17th.
Further, the Estate and 1×1 LAND auctions will run from May 11th to May 15th on OpenSea.
With the raffle and the sale, users have an opportunity to get LAND besides HKUST, Nouns,
Softstar and other popular Chinese industry leaders.
Find out more about the LAND sale in The Sandbox’s detailed blogpost.
Liberty Legends coming to The Sandbox May 3rd
Liberty Gaming, the guild turned web3 gaming platform, has partnered with The Sandbox to
introduce a new experience in the metaverse.
Titled Liberty Legends, the new experience will go live on Wednesday 3rd May and contain football,
basketball, races, and other quests for players to participate in.
Liberty’s experience will also be supported by its partners, which include Galaxy Blitz
Game, Supa Foundation, Meta Strike, Dragon Master, Nemesis Downfall, Swords of Blood, Surf
Guild, and more
With these 12 partners, Liberty Gaming has created a contest for players to find the 12
logos hidden in the metaverse city. Players who successfully find the logos will be rewarded with
prizes.
Q1 project update
The Sandbox has released a project update of its completed progress during Q1 2023. We’ve summarized some of the development team’s key work.
The Game Maker continues to be a primary focus. The 0.8 version saw nearly 30,000 downloads and over 10,000 experiences created. Users can look forward to new Game Maker updates which will have a multiplayer-first focus and include features such as enhanced visual FX, timed events, and performance enhancements.
VoxEdit added multi-selection features, improved hotkeys and contextual menus. The Marketplace also had a strong start with over 34,000 assets created with VoxEdit and 4,119 NFTs sold.
LAND ownership grew by 2%, with over 23,500 LAND owners globally, and Voxel Madness LAND Sale generated over $1 million worth of SAND sales. The team highlights its commitment to assets and will incorporate new utility features to increase holder benefits.
In terms of players, over 100,000 unique players entered the metaverse this quarter, generating 1.73 million experience visits across 25 events. Additionally, over 150,000 avatars were customized and over 20,000 avatars equipped.
The Sandbox has also made a key update for new users, who can now create an account using just their email and password, without the need of a web3 wallet.
New partnerships have been added, virtual AMAs hosted, and German game development studio Sviper Gmbh has been acquired by The Sandbox.
“As we continue to work towards fully opening The Sandbox, our team is more energized than ever to build the platform that our incredible community deserves – one that shines as a world-leading virtual space for limitless creativity, innovation, and gaming.” Read the full Q1 project update here.
Collaboration with Open Campus
The Sandbox has collaborated with Open Campus to bring immersive education to web3. Both entities share the goal of bringing global communities together to support, inform, educate, and entertain.
Open Campus is all set to acquire land in The Sandbox and build educational experiences. Users will be able to visit this part and interact with fun learning experiences, complete missions, and take courses by TinyTap, and other partners.
To mark this collaboration, Open Campus has also announced a special giveaway. About 500 eligible land holders will receive a Silver Notebook NFT, which will give them early access and some other perks.
To be eligible for this giveaway, the criteria is
- Hold Land
- Follow The Sandbox and Open Campus on Twitter
- Join Open Campus’ Discord server
- Sign up via Premint
The Wild Ones mint in partnership with The Sandbox
‘Dance your way through the metaverse’ with DanceFight’s The Wild Ones street dancer NFT avatars minting in collaboration with The Sandbox.
10 of the world’s top street dancers will be represented by 3,130 unique avatars, which have been co-created with the dancers themselves. Each dancer is also set up to receive the majority of sales from each avatar purchase.
Mint date is 18th April, where allowlist users can mint up to two NFT avatars per wallet. The public sale starts 19th April, and will allow users to mint up to four avatars per wallet.
The Marathon City bringing Los Angeles landmarks to the metaverse
In collaboration with The Marathon, The Sandbox metaverse will be enriched by remade landmarks of Los Angeles in the project The Marathon City. In legacy of west coast rapper Nipsey Hussle, the founder of The Marathon brand, the experience will give players a chance to interact, compete, and visit reimagined key locations throughout Los Angeles.
The Marathon City LAND aims to be “a positive space that embraces creativity and celebrates the legacy and values of Nipsey Hussle.”
The Sandbox is collaborating with the Playground Studios to create a unique metaverse world for fans of NBA star and trendsetter LaMelo Ball. Aiming to create a digital playground for creators, collectors and fans, the initiative will also focus on educating users on how to leverage blockchain in a safe manner.
The first event is set to start 17th April and run to 1st May.
Players can experience OliveX’s Fitness City in The Sandbox from Tuesday 11th to Monday 17th of April. In an attempt to complete various quests players will have to overcome challenges such as labyrinths, obstacles, ladders and find hidden corners.
As part of the event, players can also experience Polygon’s leading move-and-own game Dustland Runner, by starting in The Sandbox from the iconic New Alice Springs.
The launch also marks the debut of playable avatars for Gym A Club holders.
The Sandbox introducing Netmarble world
South Korean mobile gaming giant Netmarble has joined hands with The Sandbox. Initially, The Sandbox will introduce a ‘Netmarble IP LAND’ within its Korean-focused K-Verse, a 6×6-sized plot where players can immerse themselves in a Netmarble-inspired experience.
The Sandbox has published its highly anticipated roadmap updates.
Some of the features included will see LAND owners able to further personalise their LANDs and publish them for everyone to enjoy, and creators to sell their creations in the marketplace, as well as new $SAND staking pools.
For more details, read the LAND owner roadmap update in full.
The Sandbox kicks off its April Festival. This meta-event is accessible to all and will run from April 5th to May 2ndm, with mystery boxes, exclusive events, and new prize pools including 1.15 million $SAND in rewards.
The Sandbox join forces with Ledger. To offer a higher level of security integration to its brand partners, The Sandbox has announced a new partnership with Ledger Enterprise, the enterprise arm of hardware wallet company Ledger.
The Sandbox has announced a new partnership with Havas Play, Vivendi’s new global comms brand. In particular, the partnership will help empower the already strong client brands and communities active within Havas, while expanding its offerings in highly-immersive, interactive experiences.
The Sandbox announces new IPs coming to the metaverse. deadmau5, the popular electronic music producer and DJ, has made several appearances in The Sandbox. Along with Smearballs, the director, animator, and visual artist, deadmau5 has created ‘Head5′, a collection of 5,555 generative avatars.
The Sandbox partners with AIMC (a subsidiary of Astory), a global entertainment company. With this collab, one of the most-watched K-dramas on Netflix, ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ will enter The Sandbox.
The show’s story revolves around Woo Young Woo, a witty, high-functioning female rookie attorney on the autism spectrum, who gets fixated on a whale that acts as a visual cue for Woo.
Together, AIMC and The Sandbox will recreate some of the popular locations like the courtroom, Woo Young Woo kimbap restaurant, Hanbada office, and more along with the floating blue whale.
In addition to this, AIMC has also launched ‘Extraordinary Whale Club’ – an NFT project to spread awareness about autism.
Charles & Keith, the Singapore-based global fashion brand has opened up their first CHARLESKEITHHAUS in The Sandbox. The virtual shops will have an opening event from March 13th to March 27th. The playhouse will display the 2023 Spring Collection – A State of Play.
To top it all off, the K-pop artist APOKI will be hosting a rooftop party. This party will also feature a virtual runway that will display the latest collection. The 2023 spring collection will be made available in the shops for purchase later.
Madballs, the foam and rubber bouncing balls that became popular during the 1980s, will now have a digital form as The Sandbox is all set to take it to the metaverse. The iconic toys had an icky appearance, odd names, and a weird character synopsis for each Madball.
In The Sandbox, Madballs will take on a digital form. The original Madball characters will be revived as collectible avatars. The metaverse project promises that “Each Avatar will be based on the original, outrageously disgusting Madballs characters, plus never-before-seen designs from the ’80s, featuring ghastly faces, grotesque names, and disruptively funny attitudes to match.”
The Sandbox, the virtual world and Animoca Brands subsidiary, has announced its newest acquisition, this time of the German game developer Sviper GmbH. Founded in 2016 and known for its creative excellence working with major brand partners and its senior-level talent, Sviper has been a growing player ever since. (1st March)
‘Parisland’ is coming to The Sandbox. As a special Valentine’s Day celebration, this new collaborative experience is built as a romantic adventure on a tropical island and features Paris Hilton. In the new experience, which will be available exclusively in The Sandbox, players will participate in an in-game dating reality show hosted by Paris Hilton, where they will interact with five potential romantic partners.
The Sandbox has announced a partnership with ZeptoLab, the development studio behind Cut the Rope, among others. The partnership will bring new experiences to the metaverse through the creation of a new space and web3 engagement with the ZeptoLab community.
ZeptoLab will have its own special LAND, enabling players to manage the Om Nom Cafe within Nomville, while serving customers as part of an exciting arcade management game based on the developer’s popular game.