The Sandbox has announced a series of new partners for Hong Kong’s metaverse cultural hub, Mega City 2.
Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (SCBHK) today announced a partnership with The Sandbox to create metaverse experiences for its community. As part of the partnership, SCBHK has acquired a virtual plot of land in The Sandbox’s Mega City district, a cultural hub inspired by Hong Kong talents.
Mega City was previously backed by Hong Kong real estate giant Sun Hung Kai in January. Led by SC Ventures, the innovation, financial technology investment and venture arm of Standard Chartered Group, SCBHK will actively engage its clients, partners, staff and the technology community to explore co-creation opportunities in the metaverse, with the aim of building new experiences for customers, as well as bringing local sports and arts communities into the space.
🌆 We’re going back to MEGA CITY! 🌆
We are expanding upon the finest of Hong Kong culture with the second part of our LAND sale centred around the Mega City district inside #TheSandbox!
👉 Thursday 28th April @ 1pm UTC! https://t.co/xHu9xeBw4z pic.twitter.com/NkgJvUHIZu
— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) April 25, 2022
Mary Huen, CEO of Standard Chartered in Hong Kong, commented on this collaboration, “Our involvement in the metaverse allows us to reimagine our relationship with existing and potential customers on this new platform and our approach to enhancing customer journeys.
Having acquired a virtual property in Mega City, a natural choice for the Bank given its distinct Hong Kong theme, fits perfectly with our promise to reinforce our continued presence in Hong Kong, whether physical or virtual.”
At the same time, The Sandbox has also announced a number of partnerships as part of Mega City’s second phase expansion. These include Hong Kong’s iconic Ocean Park, Regal Hotel Group, luxury media group Tatler Asia, private equity firm Brinc, Web3 firm MADWorld and other entities from the tourism, hospitality, culture, media, education, banking, investment, music and entertainment sectors, which will enable The Sandbox to build a culturally vibrant community that represents the city.
Mega City 2 will also include “Time Gates of Hong Kong Pop Culture,” a metaverse project featuring the world’s largest collection of King of Kowloon (KOK) street art and Asia’s largest anthology of art toys, stationery and comic books.
Curated by HONG KONG CREATES, the project integrates the KOK NFT art museum, a metaverse academy to learn Chinese hanzi and an interactive game with an offline treasure hunt game linked to NFT collectibles.
The Sandbox will launch a MegaCity LAND sale on April 28, which will allow players to purchase LAND and become part of this neighborhood.
“Our new partners bring the best of what makes Hong Kong a multicultural and vibrant city, while sharing our creative vision of building an open metaverse,” said Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox. “They are reinventing and innovating through The Sandbox platform to deliver unique virtual experiences.”
The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based software and venture capital firm Animoca Brands, has established a number of partnerships with companies in Hong Kong. Last week, the metaverse platform joined forces with Hong Kong railway services company MTR Corporation to build a virtual railway space.