No doubt, the Metaverse is all about artworks and unending entertainment. These artworks include paintings, drawings, and avatars. Likewise, other types of assets in the Metaverse are games, real estate, and virtual worlds. Metaverse building studios are digital companies. They are responsible for designing artworks, building games, and creating virtual worlds. Therefore, they play an essential role in the concept of virtual worlds.
Some studios design limited edition and rare NFTs. Blockchain technology allows anyone to create artworks and sell them on any marketplace. Accordingly, NFT studios list their works on NFT marketplaces. Both the creator and marketplace earn a percentage from every NFT sale. Hence, studios create streams of income for themselves and their host platform.
Metaverse studios create blockchain games, virtual worlds, and metaverse universes. Also, they design non-fungible tokens used in those games. While some games allow players to use any NFT, others do not. Consequently, some games have an in-house NFT marketplace. Hence, players can purchase gaming characters or even sell them. However, players can sell NFTs in most games on any marketplace.
Largest metaverse studios
There are numerous teams that design content in the Metaverse industry. However, the following are the largest Metaverse studios and their projects:
Yuga Labs
Yuga Labs is a community-driven NFT studio with a valuation of $4 billion. So far, they own three of the biggest NFT brands. Initially, they were the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection (BAYC). BAYC is an NFT collection made of 10,000 unique Bored Apes. Recently, Yuga Labs recently acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from Larva Labs.
CryptoPunks is a limited edition of 10,000 unique collectibles, while Meebits are 3D avatars for metaverse platforms. Moreover, Yuga Labs are the owners of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) collections.
Yuga Labs is known for its expensive NFT brands. The following are stats from coinmarketcap.com on Yuga Labs’ NFT collections:
Bored Ape Yacht Club: ranks second in the list of NFT collections with a market cap of $3.7 billion. The average price for a BAYC NFT is 19.25 ETH ($57,750).
CryptoPunks: is currently the most expensive NFT collection ever. Each Punk sells for an average of 44.81 ETH ($134,400)
Mutant Ape Yacht Club: MAYC ranks as the third NFT brand by market cap. These artworks sell at an average of 10.8 ETH ($32,400).
Meebits: with a market cap of $278 million, Meebits collections rank 8Th among collectibles. Also, the average price for Meebits is 5.4 ETH ($16,200).
Alongside NFT collections, Yuga Labs is currently working on Otherside – a blockchain gaming platform. According to the CEO of Yuga Labs, BAYC holders will not be the only players of Otherside. Everybody will be able to play the game. Likewise, other NFT collections can serve as in-game assets within the game. As of this writing, Yuga Labs is yet to provide further information about Otherside.
Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands is a venture capital company with multiple investments in the Metaverse and NFT business. The company is an investor in over 150 blockchain projects. Likewise, Animoca is the developer of the well-known virtual world game – The Sandbox. Alongside Sandbox, the growing portfolio of blockchain games from Animoca Brands includes:
REVV Motorsport: REVV is a play-to-earn racing game. Most items in the game are NFTs, together with automobiles players use. As a result, gaming items and racing sessions are blockchain assets. REVV Racing, MotoGP Ignition, and F1 Delta Time are racing games within the REVV ecosystem.
Phantom Galaxies: this game is similar to the traditional 3D video game. However, the blockchain version offers a difference with the introduction of non-fungible tokens. Consequently, all avatars, equipment, and mechs belong to players.
GAMEE: a casual gaming platform that utilizes the P2E model. The game has one utility token – GMEE. GMEE serves every purpose of an in-game currency.
The Sandbox is the most popular game from Animoca Brands. As of April 2022, The Sandbox is worth over $3.3 billion by market cap. Regardless, Animoca is a company with more web3 and metaverse investment. The brand is a stakeholder in Axie Infinity, Alien Worlds, Dapper, Bloktopia, etc.
Sky Mavis
Sky Mavis is re-known for its play-to-earn game Axie Infinity. In the world of blockchain gaming, Axie Infinity is a reputable game. It is worth $2.9 billion by market cap and has over 2.8 million active users. Consequently, Sky Mavis is one of the largest companies to build a metaverse brand.
Sky Mavis aims to develop virtual economies where players thrive without centralization. In blockchain-based games, players own the right to their digital assets without limits. Hence, players own axies and other items they purchase on Axie Infinity.
Sky Mavis didn’t make it to this list because of Axie Infinity alone. Here are the metaverse products Sky Mavis has built:
Axie Infinity: is a play-to-earn game where players own axies and breed them for crypto. The game is a host to two cryptocurrencies – AXS and SLP. AXS serves as a governance token while players earn SLP.
Axie Infinity Marketplace: is an in-house marketplace where players sell game items. Users can sell NFTs, including axies, lands, and bundles, to anyone. Current stats show that players have transacted over $3.6 billion worth of game items on Axie Infinity Marketplace.
Katana: Katana is a DEX for the Ronin ecosystem. On Katana, users can swap between tokens integrated with the Ronin blockchain. Primary coins you can trade on Katana include AXS, WETH, SLP, and USDC. Similarly, users can access other products available on the Ronin blockchain through Katana.
Decentraland
Decentraland is a virtual real-estate platform where users can buy parcels of land. Meanwhile, like physical real estate, users can develop their lands. You can build a house, supermarket, a park or a hotel. Moreover, players can rent out their real estate or lease them.
On Decentraland, players can move around in the form of avatars. So, users can also sell clothes to these avatars.
There have also been institutional interest in Decentraland. For example, in November 2021, Tokens.com bought a parcel of land for $2.43m on Decentraland. Likewise, fashion brands and musicians have staked their claims on the platform. With so much activity in Decentraland, it is the closest platform to a metaverse.
The native currency of Decentraland is MANA. It serves as the currency of the Decentraland economy. Similarly, it gives governing rights to users interested in being a part of the DAO.
Mythical Games
Mythical Games is the developer of the popular metaverse game – Blankos Block Party. The game places much emphasis on player ownership. Therefore, users can create avatars for gameplay. Similarly, players can purchase these avatars as NFTs from the game’s marketplace.
Mythical Games does not seem to place much emphasis on creating a token. Instead, their priority is to utilize blockchain technology fully. Therefore, developers can integrate blockchain-based play-to-earn games into their new feature – Mythical Platform. Their official website says Mythical Games have more exciting games coming soon.
The concept of Metaverse includes blockchain gaming, NFTs, and virtual worlds. We can expect each metaverse studio to keep improving its efforts toward virtual reality.
