Standard Chartered and Others to Join The Sandbox Metaverse Mega City II

Animoca Brands subsidiary, The Sandbox, has announced a series of new partners for the second phase of Hong Kong’s cultural hub in the metaverse – Mega City 2.

For the second phase of the metaverse Mega City, the project has partnered with players across different sectors such as tourism, hospitality, culture, media, education, banking, investment, music, and entertainment.

The “Culturally Vibrant” Metaverse

In the latest blog post, the metaverse investor and NFT game publisher revealed the names of the new entrants in the Mega City’s expansion into the second phase. They consist of Standard Chartered, Ocean Park, Regal Hotels Group, Tatler Asia, EVI, Brinc, MADworld, Gameone, Chord Hero, Time Gates of Hong Kong Pop Culture, and UFO School.

Sebastien Borget, Co-founder and COO of the Softbank-backed gaming company, stated,

“Our new partners bring some of the best of what makes Hong Kong a multi-cultural, vibrant city while sharing our creative vision of building an open metaverse. They are reinventing themselves and innovating through The Sandbox platform to offer unique virtual experiences.”

The Sandbox is also planning to roll out a new LAND Sale on April 28 to enable players to purchase LANDs and become a part of the Mega City neighborhood.

The latest development comes three months after the metaverse platforms first announced the creation of the first phase of Mega City. As reported earlier, the end goal is to expand Hong Kong’s culture into the metaverse. As part of the ambitious project, The Sandbox forged partnerships with the city’s heavy-weights across various industries of film, music, entertainment, acting, professional services, gaming, etc.

Metaverse Madness

Last week, reports suggested that The Sandbox is looking to secure $400 million at a $4 billion valuation from both new and existing investors. The creators of the blockchain-based gaming company – Animoca Brands – have also made quite some noise, especially with its acquisition spree.

Since the beginning of the year, Animoca has added development studios Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, and Grease Monkey Games to its growing list.

Several technology leaders are eyeing to capture a slice of a multi-billion market opportunity. The rapidly expanding gaming space, as well as increased adoption of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are fueling the growth of the global metaverse market. Some of the major players operating in the global metaverse market are Facebook, Tencent, Nvidia Corporation, Epic Games, Roblox Corporation, Unity Technologies, etc.