The metaverse will only succeed and become mainstream if it is localised, according to Sebastien Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer (COO) of The Sandbox, a virtual world where players can build, own, and monetise their gaming experiences in the Ethereum blockchain.

The Sandbox is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, a Hong-Kong based game software and venture capital company.

Speaking at the Future Blockchain Summit, part of GITEX Global 2022 in Dubai, Borget outlined the need to create “neighbourhoods” that users recognise in the metaverse so that they can better relate to the virtual world.

“We see The Sandbox as a new digital nation without frontiers, with people owning land and avatars, and are citizens of that nation. We want the metaverse to be accessible and available everywhere, but we want it to be local,” he said.

To make the metaverse “interesting” for the wider global population it requires the addition of culture, which the co-founder is hoping to build by “involving brands in entertainment, fashion, music and lifestyle”.

“We need to understand [that] every region is different; they want their neighbourhood on the map,” said Borget. “We built neighbourhood by neighbourhood, making [each one] valuable for users.”

This desire to localise prompted The Sandbox to launch the “Dubaiverse” in March this year, a Dubai-themed metaverse on the platform built through a series of local partnerships with brands in the film, music, entertainment, finance, real estate, and gaming industries. The platform has already begun to onboard local brands onto the Dubaiverse including GCEX, one of the first exchanges to be licensed by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai.

“We’ve been working with key partners in the region and the work of the [Dubai] officials are amazing and how they are pushing the metaverse as a major goal for the city and the region,” continued Borget.

The Sandbox is now looking to launch a mobile version of its platform next year which Borget believes will make the metaverse more mainstream. The platform is also adding more utility functions to NFTs [non-fungible tokens] to create greater use cases for them with the ability to animate and have “playable versions” of NFTs.

“Our goal is to grow an ecosystem and inspire people and get everyone in the metaverse and fight against the Facebooks and Robloxes of the world,” he concluded. “It’s about interoperability and owning your assets - that’s not a nice to have, it’s a must have.”

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com )