An Austin entrepreneur creates a subdivision on an island in the metaverse and sells the lots in the millions The project is built on the NFTWorlds platform and promises an interactive experience for users through the Minecraft engine.
By Entrepreneur Staff Edited by Eduardo Scheffler Zawadzki
This article was translated from our Spanish edition.
The place is called White Sands , it is a virtual world and its creators, Adam Hollander and Brandon Brown, dream that soon users can lead an alternate life within it. The space in this metaverse has been subdivided and users can now acquire land and build their own mansion using the interface of the popular Minecraft game. But that's not all: they will also be able to drive off-road vehicles, fly in a hot air balloon, attend stand-up comedy shows and purchase NFT's to equip themselves in this new reality.
In an interview with Fox News last week, Hollander explained how this metaverse works: "We launched White Sands as a project about a month ago. It is supported by a platform called NFTWorlds in which there are 10,000 different worlds, each practically infinite in size and scope. Each person, each company, each project can acquire a world and start building on it to create interactive experiences based on the Minecraft engine that is used by 170 million users every month… All worlds can be interconnected: one day you can be playing virtual golf and the next day you might decide to save a princess from a dragon, the next day you might have a business meeting. Ultimately you will need a place to return to in the center of this interconnected metaverse that never stops growing."
THE KEY IS IN THE GAMIFICATION
A few weeks ago the first batches went on sale and according to Hollander the company generated 1,500 ETH , which is equivalent to about $4 million dollars. According to the entrepreneur, gamification ( gamification or the incorporation of games into the virtual world) is one of the key pieces of the project. The entrepreneur was director of gamification at Microsoft (current owner of Minecraft) between 2015 and 2017 and before launching White Sands he participated in the creation of Hungry Wolves , a collection of 6,000 randomly created virtual wolves that can face each other.
Projects like White Sands are a clear sign that there are users who are willing to invest to acquire properties in virtuality. In the same interview Hollander explains: "A few weeks ago we sold 3,000 individual land spaces and generated millions of dollars for the project that we are reinvesting. A couple of days ago we made the announcement that we hired 50 developers who are going to be working full time on the project. Of course we are going to build more houses that people can make their own, but also interactive experiences, customizations like moving vehicles, pets, furniture and more. This is going to become a place where you can really feel like you own a piece of an ever-growing metaverse…"
White Sands is not the only project of its kind. It is enough to take a look at NFTWorlds to realize that the offer of metaverses is becoming broader and more robust. That is why brands have already begun to explore the possibilities of interacting with their potential consumers.
I was on @FoxNews this morning discussing @whitesandsgame and the #metaverse
— Adam Hollander (@HollanderAdam) March 30, 2022
Gotta love when regional anchors call you ridiculous on live TV
Had a bit of fun educating them https://t.co/wU1Bi7rBcG
