Goku, Vegeta and the rest of the fighters from the "Dragon Ball" franchise are joining the metaverse. Late Thursday, decentralized game developer The Sandbox announced a new partnership with Japanese animation giant Toei Animation to bring its iconic intellectual property to its virtual world.
The Sandbox is an Ethereum-based metaverse gaming company enabling users and brands to buy virtual parcels of "land" to create games and other experiences. The new Toei Animation partnership will add the IP to its LANDs Web3 gaming parcel. The new LANDs parcel is currently under development in collaboration with Japan-based Minto, a mascot design and marketing agency.
Dragon Ball, Iconic IP
Toei Animation is a leading anime name. Founded in 1956, Toei's catalog includes some of Japan's largest and longest-running titles, such as "One Piece," "Sailor Moon," and the early-2000's hit "Yu-Gi-Oh!"
Toei Animation's "Dragon Ball" has been airing in Japan since 1986 and is arguably the most popular anime show of all time. The "Dragon Ball" manga, or printed comic, has sold over 300 million copies worldwide since its debut. It's the second-highest seller of all time, trailing only "One Piece" at 516 million copies sold.
The widely popular IP has collaborated with the likes of Funko and Fortnite. And the series protagonist Goku appears annually in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
With the new partnership, The Sandbox creators will be able to add Toei Animation content to their metaverse projects.
"This partnership is an exciting addition for our open metaverse platform to bring some of the best content from Japanese culture to our creator community," Sebastian Borget, The Sandbox co-founder and COO said in the release.
"Together we will chart new continents and new routes that will guide the entertainment industry for years to come," Satoshi Shinohara, manager director of Toei said.
The Sandbox's SAND token edged down about 1% early Friday following the news to trade around 76 cents. SAND price has nearly doubled so far this year, rising from 39 cents at the start of January.
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