The Sandbox’s Infinite Pulse Land sale starts 14th July
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.
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.
