News JVTech Toei Animation: The giant behind Dragon Ball or One Piece starts an innovative project
After decades on small and big screens, the famous Japanese studio behind many popular animation licenses wants to land in the virtual world through innovative technology. Toei Animation has just signed a contract with a renowned French partner.
Although nobody expected it, the Japanese animation studio behind Dragon Ball, One Piece, Digimon or Harlock wants to invest in the metaverse. As a reminder, this term defines a 3D virtual environment in which users can interact with digital representations of themselves in avatar form. Widespread by Meta (formerly Facebook) more than a year ago, this concept continues to attract pioneers in their fields.
This is the case of Toei Animation, which has just signed an exceptional agreement with one of the trendiest virtual worlds. To capitalize on its famous licenses in the metaverse, the animation giant has chosen The Sandbox:
“The ‘metaverse’ is a concept that has emerged in recent years. Toei Animation is now ready to embark on this new ocean. We are very happy and proud to partner with The Sandbox and Minto. “I’m really looking forward to seeing the adventures and stories of the different works and characters we’ve created so far in this new territory. said Satoshi Shinohara, general manager of Toei Animation.
As a reminder, The Sandbox is one of the greatest international metaverses. It was created by Pixowl, a company founded by two Frenchmen: Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget. With more than 2 million users in 2022, the virtual world is considered the second largest Metaverse project, just behind the Decentraland Metaverse.
“Together with Minto, Inc., The Sandbox is honored to partner with Toei Animation in creating Toei Animation’s proprietary IP-based experiences within The Sandbox’s metaverse. ‘ states The Sandbox in a press release
Concretely, this partnership will allow The Sandbox to offer different digital experiences related to the universes and characters of the different animes of the famous franchise in its metaverse.
The sandbox expands its colossal empire
With this new partnership, the cubic virtual world similar to Minecraft expands its empire. By multiplying partnerships with renowned brands over the years, The Sandbox has become a leader in the industry and has gained a clear edge over its competitors.
These LANDs, small virtual plots of land, have been instrumental in the success of the French metaverse. For several years, many companies have wanted to leverage the presence of the Metaverse sector by collaborating and displaying their advertising on the LAND map, like the 2005 phenomenon: “The Million Dollar Homepage”.
Among these big brands we find:
- Carrefour
- Gucci
- casino group
- ATARI
- warner
- playboy
- binance
- Axa France
- And so many others…
This new initiative with Toei Animation therefore expands the trend, while the context surrounding the Metaverse technology is no longer as favorable as before.
In fact, individual disinterest in the industry has left some industry pioneers in deficit in 2022. For example, Meta recorded losses of $13.72 billion for its Reality Labs arm, a pole dedicated to the Metaverse. In addition, some giants like Microsoft, after investing heavily in the development of the metaverse, are halting the costs associated with the metaverse and firing en masse.
