Ethereum-based Sandbox sells out another virtual LAND presale

Upcoming blockchain-based virtual metaverse game The Sandbox has completely sold out of its second LAND presale, with thousands of additional parcels claimed by buyers who are eagerly awaiting the game’s release.

TSB Gaming’s second presale offered up 6,192 pieces of LAND, the virtual in-game spaces built on Ethereum where owners can eventually create interactive and social experiences in the 3D voxel environment. That’s about 5% of the total amount of LAND parcels in the entire game world.

Publisher Animoca Brands announced late last week that the presale had brought in 800 ETH (worth roughly $206,000 at the moment) within hours of opening up, although it had not sold out at that point. On Sunday, TSB Gaming COO and co-founder Sebastien Borget tweeted that the LAND presale had completely sold through. The company still has limited-edition in-game assets up for sale.

“The success of the first two presales of The Sandbox strongly validates our approach to building a gaming metaverse, showing the growing interest from creators and gamers in the benefits of true digital ownership that will allow them to monetize their future creations within an open economy,” Borget said in a release late last week. “We can see without any doubt that users are ready to jump into our vision of the Metaverse.”

The Sandbox held its first presale in December, selling through more than 3,000 LAND parcels in about four hours. The game features 166,464 total pieces of LAND, each an ERC-721 non-fungible token (NFT), which can be grouped together into ESTATEs for larger-scale in-game creations. Owners can monetize their creations when the game goes live, as well as rent land to other users as desired.

Early LAND buyers have included the Shaun the Sheep brand, Old Skull Games, Dapp.com, CryptoKitties, and My Crypto Heroes, with some partners set to create their own virtual experiences in The Sandbox. A third LAND presale will be announced in the near future, according to Amonica.

The Sandbox began life as a mobile creation game with more than 40 million downloads, according to its publisher, and this new blockchain-driven creation experience is expected to launch later in 2020. It is one of Decrypt’s most anticipated blockchain games on the horizon.