Bored Ape Yacht Club parent company Yuga Labs launched its Second Trip for its Otherside universe today as a new “metaverse” experience.
Bored Ape Yacht Club parent company Yuga Labs launched its Second Trip for its Otherside universe today as a new “metaverse” experience.
The company launched the experience with many thousands of simultaneous users, all interacting in real time, according to Herman Narula, CEO of Improbable, the tech partner for the project. Yuga Labs is among the contenders trying to create an experience in metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One.
The Second Trip builds on last summer’s First Trip, where Yuga Labs and Improbable were able to squish 4,500 people into the same real-time 3D world with 3D audio using software from Cambridge, England-based Improbable, which has been experimenting with tech to build massive gaming worlds for years.
Back then, the tech showed that players enjoyed full physics effects for their characters, and they could speak with each other in small groups using 3D audio, or hear all the players at once. I participated in the Second Trip today and it was a similar experience, but seemingly with far more people. Narula didn’t say how many people participated today, but suffice to say it was a record number. Earlier, the companies said that the experience would hold 10,000 people.
“We have a lot more capacity than the last time and I expect it could break the record,” Narula said.
Yuga Labs invited Otherdeed holders, or people who had bought its non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which was one of the sensations of the NFT craze of the past couple of years. Holders of a dozen projects were able to copy their PFP images onto the screen-like faces of Voyagers, the name of the space-faring avatars used to navigate the landscape of the virtual world of Otherside.
“In terms of accessibility, they are definitely at opening up a broader community,” Narula said. “There are going to be 12 different companies and providers.”
Yuga Labs has the resources to be a “metaverse” contender. It raised $450 million in March 2022. And Yuga Labs initially sold 55,000 Otherdeed NFTs for virtual land ownership. That generated about $320 million in primary sales. Overall, the Otherdeed NFTs have generated secondary sales of more than 500,00 ETH, or above $800 million.
