Takeaways
- The Sandbox has been around for a decade while keeping the same vision and direction, from mobile game to PC to Metaverse.
- A fun discovery of The Sandbox world to become not only a game but a complete ecosystem built for infinite creation and remuneration.
- The Sandbox and Metaverses are new platforms offering innovative experience and communication; they are the future paradise for brands and IPs.
- They represent the first experience of immersive commerce.
General Intro
While we keep seeing more and more news about the Metaverse and the future of the web (Web3), you probably heard and read about Decentraland or even The Sandbox. But what are they, and what are the implications for our future? Some fear Metaverses will ring the end of real-life socialization like in Ready Player One, and others are fully embracing it. So to learn, I decided to try it for myself and understand what our future would look like from an advertising and communication strategist's point of view.
As a disclaimer, I am not a hardcore gamer; however, I like playing video games once in a while when I have the chance. I love open-world games, where I can explore and decide what I want to do next. Linear gameplays are not my type of game as I quickly feel constrained to be "guided." So naturally, I was looking at the next sandbox games. Sandbox characterizes a type of video game where the player creates his story and has a significant degree of freedom to explore, interact with, or modify the game environment to his will.
The Beginnings | Sandbox and The Sandbox Evolution Vision
In 2012, I came across The Sandbox “Create your World” after some research. The game was developed by Pixowl, a mobile game development studio created by Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget. The Sandbox was a very innovative mobile game experience with excellent physics and 2D pixel building tools. Players were crafting and controlling their journeys. It was a massive success with more than 40 million downloads worldwide. In 2016, The Sandbox Evolution was developed and released on Steam for PC. Again, I had great times experiencing the suite of the franchise’s infinite possibilities of creation and enjoyed the game's openness, which is reaching more than 70 million downloads. Unfortunately, as I am not an avid fan of mobile games and easily get caught up in life, I didn’t push the experience further. Still, this time made me excited about the potential future of gaming.
In 2018, The Sandbox was acquired by Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based video game development company. Keeping the same vision, it was the beginning of the Metaverse. The Sandbox protocol is blockchain-based; its users can create an entire universe and its economy, taking gaming to the next level.
The First Steps in the Metaverse | The Sandbox Experience
Finally, in 2022, the time has come to see what The Sandbox team and Animoca have been cooking in the last few years—a blockchain-based 3D open-world game.
I logged in to The Sandbox, created my account, linked a Metamask wallet, and designed my avatar. Then, I was good to go exploring the evolution of gaming reality.
My first step in the new Sandbox 3D world brought me back to the past, and the nostalgia kicked in. The music was the same with an evolution from 8-bit to more melodic tunes; the artistic direction was similar, only from 2D to 3D voxel style.
As I take my first steps, I see a rotating golden ticket on a pedestal. I get closer and try to grab it. The first mechanic is then explained—Play-to-Earn. The more quests you complete, the more raffle tickets you collect. These raffle tickets grant you the chance to win this highly coveted item at the end of the Season—the Alpha Season Pass. Only a thousand lucky players will have the opportunity to win this item and receive up to 500 SAND tokens valued at $2.97 each.
I continued my exploration, and I came across the main old-guy iconic character with his long white beard. He gave me my first quest collecting Voxelites and discovering the four areas of the Alpha Lobby to understand the mechanics and controls, and I got to know some of the play-to-earn possibilities. Exciting.
So here I go—exploring the Alpha Lobby. It is composed of 4 different environments, including 3 Areas to introduce the factions: The Heroes Faction, the Oracles Area, set in a magical forest, and the Scientists Area, which is more futuristic, where you can meet and get info from NPCs (Non-Playable-Characters) who will interact with you and give you details about the factions. The last area of the Alpha Lobby is an NFT museum, where I saw some of the most sought-after NFTs (BAYC) and other less-known digital art. By clicking on ‘view’, it links you to the Opensea platform, where you can place a bid or purchase a specific NFT (understand that an NFT in a museum collection, even in a digital museum, will gain value over time).
From the Alpha Lobby, I passed a portal bringing me to the Portal Hub. The Portal Hub gives you access to all the different playable zones created by The Sandbox projects and partners, or any creator who purchased land. Today there are a dozen available lands to play and experience, and this number will increase to nearly 20 before the end of March 2022.
For example, South China Morning Post (SCMP), a famous Hong Kong news platform, replicated the actual Hong Kong Ferry and space. It gives players the possibility to discover the iconic ferry boat that transports Hong Kong citizens between Kowloon and HK Island. The map is very informative and educational in which you learn the long history of the Ferry. Another land called Dracula's Castle brings players on a quest to discover what caused all the troubles in a Serein city, and players defeat the famous vampire to save the city. At the same time, Club XYZ allows you to dance and listen to music featuring world-famous DJs. Other maps are simple Hack-n-Slacks, while others are built as escape rooms with puzzles to solve. You get it—The Sandbox possibilities are endless.
The Sandbox Ecosystem | Immersive and Complete
The Sandbox has developed around its immersive economy to satisfy gamers, investors, artists, video game designers, IPs, and brands. In addition to its SAND cryptocurrency, The Sandbox was built around three main pillars: a marketplace, modeling software (VoxEdit), and game design software (GameMaker).
1. The Sandbox Marketplace
The Sandbox is free-to-play and play-to-earn but based on a freemium mechanic. If players want to boost their character, they can purchase items in the Marketplace. The Marketplace was built on the Ethereum blockchain. It supports ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens and allows users to buy perks, items, and exchange game assets and lands for remuneration in SAND tokens.
2. VoxEdit
The Sandbox's modeling software, VoxEdit, allows you to create game elements called ASSETs in 3D voxel. VoxEdit, therefore, makes it possible to model and to animate the creations according to defined scenarios. The best part is that you don’t need to be a programmer to master it.
3. GameMaker
The third pillar of The Sandbox is the GameMaker. The ASSETs developed by the artists are tested in various gaming experiences. The GameMaker is very simple, and users don't need programming knowledge to create interacting ASSETs. However, you need to own a piece of land to build an experience.
On top of this come the TOKENS.
SAND is the principal token of the Sandbox Universe, serving as digital currency.
LAND is ERC-721 NFT representing plots of land.
ASSET, Gems, and Catalyst are ERC-1155 tokens that enable further interaction in the universe.
The Sandbox Universe | Vast and Open
The Sandbox universe is vast. There is a fixed total of 166,464 parcels on the map, and all of them can become DAO, or a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which is a transparent organization, controlled by the organization members and not influenced by a central government. In other words, they are member-owned. Landowners can monetize their land in different ways. For example, they can rent it, flip it, or create experiences.
The Sandbox saw significant growth in 2021. It has over 500,000 registered wallets and 12,000 unique virtual LAND owners. In addition, it has generated over $144 million in sales of goods and services since its inception.
The Future |
After a week of experiencing the ins and outs, I realized this was not a game. Instead, The Sandbox is an immersive ecosystem. It represents the beginning of what we imagine the Metaverse to be and a real place to create, communicate and advertise. It follows modern consumers' needs, wishing to connect to their favorite brands and IPs through experiences, as retail experiences move to a constantly growing digital landscape.
1. For Players
The Sandbox is way more than a Play-to-Earn type of game. Instead, it offers a new and innovative way to play by engaging mechanics. Today, the Sandbox is one of the first virtual worlds and one of the most advanced Metaverses in which players can own, build, and monetize digital assets coupled with gaming experience led by NFT.
2. For IPS
The project partnered up with many influencers, IPs, and artists, including Snoop Dogg, The Smurfs, Rabbids, Blond:Ish, and Deadmau5, to name a few. While for some, The Sandbox offers an excellent exposure platform, for others, it is a total investment in image and profits. For instance, Snoop Dogg created his Snoopverse on the platform, with a private concert in a reconstituted villa, accessible through a previously purchased NFT pass, plus a collection of 10,000 Doggie avatars that can be used in-game by players who purchase them.
Roller Coaster Tycoon purchased colossal land and is likely planned to release a digital theme park in The Sandbox. The Walking Dead and Hell's Kitchen are following too.
3. For Brands
Adidas, Atari, Ubisoft, Warner Music Group, Binance, Gucci already own their land in The Sandbox. Who knows what they will all create and enable for the users? One thing is for sure—they are visionaries, understand the future of advertising, and understand the modern and future consumers.
Conclusion | Welcoming the Future of Immersive Commerce
This week made me see how close we were to the actual future of commerce and retail. As we live in a world where consumers want more personal interaction with brands, where the needs are more and more meaningful and significant, the Metaverse opens the door to the future of commerce.
In my opinion, the future of commerce is not only about experiential retail versus e-commerce. Instead, the future of commerce will include iCommerce (Immersive Commerce), which mixes gaming and digital experiences.
We are one small step away from the time when we will be battling zombies in a Metaverse, taking a break, stopping at a Starbucks booth, ordering a latte for 1 SAND, and receiving it physically 10 minutes later. One step away from getting into a digital Nike shop, being greeted and welcomed by Michael Jordan, who will help you browse the latest Air Jordan collection and challenge you to a one-on-one on a digital basketball court before clicking on a button to purchase them for your avatar and receiving them at your doorstep. All that with your Play-to-Earn won crypto tokens or from your Metaverse creations.
The future will not be “everything Metaverse.” We will not be wearing VR headsets all the time acting alone in our corners. The Metaverse and digital worlds will offer a new decentralized way to play, experience, own, and shop. An eventually, it will slowly embed in our lives like the internet did 30 years ago.
Don't fear the future. Embrace it, create it and own it.
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