South China Morning Post partners with The Sandbox to create cultural experiences for the Metaverse

Strategic partnership brings to life Hong Kong’s history and iconic spaces through 118 years of journalism through cultural and historical experiences that enrich The Sandbox’s NFT-Based Metaverse.

HONG KONG — July 19, 2021 — The Sandbox, a leading decentralized gaming virtual world and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, announced today its partnership with the South China Morning Post (SCMP), a leading global news organisation based in Hong Kong, to bring an authentic new series of cultural experiences to The Sandbox’s open gaming metaverse.

With SCMP as Hong Kong’s newspaper of record, the strategic partnership will bring one of the most international cities in the world to life in The Sandbox’s metaverse through SCMP’s 118 years of journalism. Part virtual real-estate, part amusement park, The Sandbox fully embraces the idea of the metaverse — as popularized in movies like Ready Player One — as a continuous shared digital space where worlds and heroes collide to create immersive experiences that stretch the imagination.

Through the partnership, SCMP continues to advocate for information accessibility through new technologies, innovation and creativity. In addition to creating 3D voxel-based gaming and cultural experiences in The Sandbox, SCMP plans to launch a collection of exclusive NFTs inspired by its library of world-renowned, award-winning photography, visual illustrations, data visualizations and infographics.

SCMP’s extensive gallery of visual graphics will be brought to life in The Sandbox in new interactive games and experiences that recreate modern and historic locations and artifacts of Hong Kong and mainland China, such as the Kowloon Walled City and the Star Ferry, in collaboration with local game studios and creators. This includes bringing together Hong Kong’s past and present in a ‘Mirrored World’ in the metaverse of The Sandbox.

As with previous partners, SCMP joined The Sandbox’s virtual real estate world to build experiences across the metaverse on LAND NFTs, which represent virtual real estate in the shared world of The Sandbox. To celebrate the new partnership, The Sandbox will hold a new LAND sale on July 22nd that allows players to purchase spots near SCMP’s project.

SCMP joins over 165 existing partnerships with LAND owners including The Walking Dead, McDull, Deadmau5, Richie Hawtin, Hanjin, Avenged Sevenfold, The Smurfs, Care Bears, Atari, ZEPETO, and CryptoKitties, all following The Sandbox team’s vision of empowering players to create their own experiences using both original and well-known characters and worlds. Additionally, LANDs will have the capability to be rented out to other players, and owners can invite other creators into their LAND to collaborate on the creation of content and experiences. Players can also combine LANDs into a larger shared space to create a richer and larger gaming or social experience.

“The Sandbox welcomes this partnership with the South China Morning Post as an important milestone in our quest to incorporate diverse cultures and histories in our gaming metaverse, SCMP is a leading global news company, and we are keen to see how it will leverage The Sandbox platform to offer exciting and interesting cultural content to our entire global community.” — Sébastien Borget, COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox.

“The South China Morning Post is committed to engaging and educating a global audience with information and technology. “The Sandbox allows us to create truly unique experiences based on SCMP’s 118 years of journalism, and ensures that these historical accounts and artifacts will remain immutable and available to the entire world. For instance, you will be able to experience the vibrant scenes of Hong Kong in the 1950s and learn about its complexities via SCMP’s contemporaneous reporting. It’s the past, the present, and the future all at once.” — ” Gary Liu, SCMP CEO.

Upcoming LAND Sale

Their 24x24 ESTATE of 576 LANDs can be seen on The Sandbox virtual world map. Users will be given the opportunity to buy LANDs next to SCMP’s project on the fifth wave of the Summer Jam land sale, scheduled for July 22nd, 2021. The Sandbox’s upcoming LAND sale event will offer additional premium LAND located near the partners announced today. Each purchasable LAND will include exclusive premium NFTs and have the possibility to host events, gaming experiences, or social hubs when the game is released later in 2021. The Sandbox has already sold 50% of its total supply of 166,464 LAND NFTs, releasing them in successive waves that usually sell out in seconds.

The Summer Jam Land Sale wave 5, starting July 22nd at 1PM UTC, features South China Morning Post.

The Sandbox is scheduled to launch its first public Alpha social experience this summer and the first play-to-earn seasons towards the end of the year, enabling anyone to experience a social hub and gain the power to build a fantastic collection of fantasy and role-playing adventures that can be traded with other players, creators, and artists on the platform.

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About The Sandbox

The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, is one of the decentralized virtual worlds that has been fueling the recent growth of virtual real-estate demand having partnered with major IPs and brands including Atari, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Care Bears, The Smurfs, Shaun the Sheep, and Binance. Building on existing The Sandbox IP that has more than 40 million global installs on mobile, The Sandbox Metaverse offers players and creators a decentralized and intuitive platform to create immersive 3D worlds and game experiences and to safely store, trade, and monetize their creations. For more information, please visit www.sandbox.game and follow the regular updates on Twitter, Medium and Discord.

About Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands, ranked in the Financial Times list of High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2021, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification. Animoca Brands develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Formula 1®, Marvel, WWE, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Doraemon. Animoca Brands’ portfolio of blockchain investments and partnerships includes Sky Mavis (Axie Infinity), Dapper Labs (CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot), OpenSea, Harmony, Bitski, and Alien Worlds. Its subsidiaries include The Sandbox, Quidd, Gamee, nWay, Pixowl, and Lympo. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or get updates by following Animoca Brands on Facebook or Twitter.

About South China Morning Post

The South China Morning Post is a leading global news company that has reported on China and Asia for more than a century. Founded in 1903, SCMP is headquartered in Hong Kong, where it is the city’s newspaper of record, with a growing correspondent staff across Asia and the United States. SCMP’s vision is to “Elevate Thought” and our mission is to “Lead the global conversation about China”. It is the recipient of hundreds of awards for its journalistic excellence, from such prestigious organizations as the World Association of News Publishers and the Online News Association. A digital-first media organization, SCMP is also home to Goldthread, a content platform with a focus on food, travel and culture in China, and publishes a portfolio of premium lifestyle and fashion titles in Hong Kong including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Esquire and Harper’s BAZAAR. In 2020, SCMP became the first news organisation in Asia to join the Trust Project, a consortium of top news companies developing global transparency standards for credible journalism.