The Walking Dead will shuffle its way into The Sandbox metaverse

The Walking Dead is coming to the decentralized gaming world of The Sandbox. That’s a major enhance for the gaming virtual world that is constructed on blockchain-based nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

The Sandbox is a game world and subsidiary of Animoca Brands, which not too long ago raised $138.8 million at a $1 billion valuation and became gaming’s newest “unicorn.”

Now The Sandbox has partnered with Skybound Entertainment, the firm owned by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, to bring an genuine new The Walking Dead expertise to The Sandbox, which is a blocky world akin to Minecraft and Legos. To date, nevertheless, there hasn’t been a lot of dripping red blood in The Sandbox, which bills itself as a metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One.

“Our vision is to make The Sandbox open metaverse feel like a virtual attraction park with many amazing unique social experiences with The Walking Dead, Atari, Smurfs, and more,” mentioned Sebastien Borget, chief operating officer of The Sandbox, in an e-mail to GamesBeat. “Bringing such major entertainment brands into The Sandbox means we can reach more than a billion people through them.”

The Walking Dead universe is a very good match as the zombie genre is one of the most preferred game categories, and The Sandbox wanted to bring the most globally properly-identified (U.S. and Asia) zombie brand, Borget mentioned.

Inside The Sandbox metaverse, The Walking Dead game expertise will encourage gamers to unite with pals and other players as they overcome the day-to-day specifications of surviving a walker-infested habitat: scavenging for meals, gathering sources, constructing walls, nurturing relationships, producing alliances, and more.

“We are closely collaborating with Skybound Entertainment on building TWD experiences that translate the spirit of the comic book series into our gaming virtual world,” Borget mentioned.

Through The Sandbox, voxel versions of favourite The Walking Dead characters, such as Rick Grimes, Michonne, and the iconic walkers, can be combined with a horde of assets to enable customers to recreate memorable comic book storylines to play by way of or to forge their personal original adventures. Both the assets that customers produce and the land that they make on are uniquely identified by way of NFTs.

NFTs use blockchain, the transparent and safe decentralized ledger technologies that can confirm the uniqueness of collectible NFT digital products. NFTs have exploded in other applications such as art, sports collectibles, and music. NBA Top Shot (a digital take on collectible basketball cards) is one instance. Built by Dapper Labs, NBA Top Shot has surpassed $700 million in sales, 5 months immediately after going public to a worldwide audience. And an NFT digital collage by the artist Beeple sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million. NFTs are now promoting at a price of $23 million a week, even though the initial hype about NFTs is dying down.

But The Sandbox is nevertheless going complete tilt into the tech. Part virtual actual-estate, portion amusement park, The Sandbox completely embraces the notion of the metaverse as this continuous shared digital space exactly where worlds and heroes collide to make rainbow-colored magic (believe Ready Player One).

Skybound Entertainment’s intellectual house joins more than 160 current partnerships such as deadmau5, Richie Hawtin, The Smurfs, Care Bears, Atari, Zepeto, and CryptoKitties, all following The Sandbox team’s vision of empowering players to produce their personal experiences employing each original and properly-identified characters and worlds.

In addition to the committed The Walking Dead expertise on The Sandbox map, customers will be capable to produce their personal fan-made adventures and stories featuring characters, game products, gear, wearables, and decorative digital assets from The Walking Dead franchise — or just showcase the assets they personal in a digital gallery or museum.

As a very first step to bring The Walking Dead into The Sandbox’s metaverse, the group will give customers the possibility to get pieces of virtual actual estate close to The Walking Dead’s spot in the metaverse, enabling fans and gamers alike to be as close as ever to their brand.

Dan Murray, co-CEO of Skybound Games &amp Merchandise, mentioned in a statement that the move will bring fans a possibility to play, produce, socialize, inhabit, and interact inside a novel multiplayer gaming virtual world.

The Sandbox is scheduled to launch its very first public alpha test for players this summer season, enabling everyone to expertise a social hub and achieve the energy to make a great collection of fantasy and part-playing adventures that can be traded with other players, creators, and artists on the platform.

“The future of The Sandbox Game Maker will enable thousands of experiences to be created, building a new game format inside the metaverse,” Borget mentioned. “We have a dedicated gameplay team that develops avatar-centric visual experiences with gaming, fights, collecting, breeding, leveling up, and social multiplayer experiences, from weddings to cosplay parades or even exhibition openings. From intimate evenings to the most unbelievable parties, your imagination is the only limit.”

The Walking Dead will also come to life in The Sandbox on the map of its metaverse, exactly where everybody will be capable to see The Walking Dead major place by today, and they’ll be capable to acquire virtual lands NFTs next to it so they can be virtual neighbors and make contiguous experiences next to it.

With more than 7,600 distinctive land owners, The Sandbox is one of the most premium virtual actual estate destinations today, and this has been supported by numerous brands, celebrities, and crypto/NFT communities, Borget mentioned.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz