The Sandbox Creates a New Marketplace for Creators

In June, Mastercard announced that it was teaming up with several non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces to “bring its payments network to Web3.” This move would make it possible for gamers on some of the hottest new blockchain game platforms to purchase NFTs with debit and credit cards. Among those included in the new partnership is The Sandbox, an Ethereum-based metaverse game that lets users buy virtual land and create playable games and experiences. The Sandbox was created by Sebastien Borget, President of Animoca Brands & The Sandbox. Borget describes himself as a serial entrepreneur often involved in pioneering technologies. Now he’s at the forefront of blockchain.

“When blockchain first appeared, we immediately saw the benefits of that technology to apply it to any content made by creators so that they could own their creations, they could monetize their creations and trade them,” Borget says. “That’s how the new platform was born. It enables creators to make 3D assets and games and monetize them for use on the blockchain.”

The Sandbox is a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize assets like real estate and gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can own assets, play, build, and own their properties and in-game assets using the platform’s main utility token, $SAND.

To play, users must buy LANDs which are the game’s virtual lands. Using this land, players can create games and other non fungible tokens (NFT).The world-building game consists of 166,464 unique pieces of LAND tokens, each belonging to a user.

“Every time we announce a land sale, there are major key partners who acquire land and are going to develop content and games on that land and we allow users to buy around them,” Borget says. “Our land was not entirely sold out from the beginning. We are releasing it over time. It’s not centralized. There is not a single place that is at the center. We tried to create a very rich and diverse map where there will be many neighborhoods of interest: games, sports, music, art and more. When you visit those lands, you will experience a lot of different things.”

The platform offers a suite of tools that allow artists, creators, and users to design experiences within the metaverse. The Sandbox offers gaming experiences, as well as social Hubs to meet players and make friends.

The platform provides an asset creation tool, free to download and capable of producing 3D voxel-based NFTs that can be used inside game experiences or as wearables by users. This allows anyone to build, share, and monetize games on the 3D gaming platform without coding experience. It’s a one-stop solution for creators to trade and monetize their assets. For this reason, 95 percent of all generated revenue goes to the creator directly.

“We launched a game maker tool that enables anyone to create game experiences without any programming knowledge,” Borget says.

The Sandbox is similar to other world-building games in that it gives players the freedom to explore an open-world map and create. However, unlike these games, the platform gives users ownership over what they create in the world.

“The Sandbox is an open metaverse,” Borget says. “If you look at games like Minecraft or Roblox, they are centralized. Users don’t benefit from ownership. They don't own their avatar, their data, or currency, They cannot take it out of the platform and use it how they want. They cannot trade it with other users on marketplaces.”