Sandbox founder Sebastian Borget has described the metaverse race as a ‘marathon of many sprints,’ as the industry moves beyond the hype cycle to build real value.

Borget remains bullish on the sector and sees opportunities for AI to play its role in building the metaverse stronger, better, and faster.

Raising funds

In November 2021, during the height of metaverse mania, Sandbox raised $93 million at an undisclosed valuation. Today Borget and the company he leads must contend with more challenging macroeconomic conditions, as well as the new technology hype trend – AI.

But Borget remains bullish despite tech’s shifting focus. The co-founder and COO is confident that the company can raise more capital if required, though it may take a little longer given current market conditions.

“Running the Sandbox is like a long marathon of many sprints,” an unfazed Borget told Forbes last week.

Borget firmly believes that the metaverse is poised to become a multi-billion dollar sector. Multiple industries are now finding real value in the metaverse and metaverse-related products, extracting profits from their forays into the virtual plane. As Borget sees it, this augurs well for Sandbox.

“We’ve been very attached to showing concretely what is possible in the metaverse as early as possible. We’ve showcased that it’s not just about gaming, but a new format of entertainment that lies between social interaction and gamification,” said Borget.

“And we’re going to showcase that the Sandbox is resilient and not depending on tech or crypto market crash,” he added.

🔷 @BBC is joining The Sandbox! 🔷

In partnership with @RealityPlusWeb3, favorite brands like @BBC_TopGear and @DoctorWho_BBCA will be bringing immersive new experiences to our community playing around the world! 🌐https://t.co/mpAPLj3ru5

— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) May 25, 2023

That resilience will come down to Sandbox’s popularity and whether it can build critical partnerships and establish a thriving community of users. Since its launch in 2018, the virtual world has enticed 23,500 users to buy virtual land plots. The corporation has further signed 400 brand partnerships.

While these figures paint an optimistic picture of the future for Sandbox, there are still some challenges that lay ahead.

More to do

Sandbox has more to do if it is to be a long-term success story with usage of the platform in decline from last year. Sandbox had 100,000 players in the first quarter of 2023, representing a 72% drop from a comparable 10-week period that ended in November of 2022.

Active wallet addresses are also down 90% from their peak a year ago, according to data from CoinGecko and DappRadar.

Borget remains philosophical about the figures, pointing to the fact that users can visit the platform without making transactions. As for the transactions that were made, these amount to sales of $1 million.

“We have more creators than ever, more users than ever and more brands than ever,” said Borget. “It’s because there’s real utility behind virtual lands and avatars. People see that they can play, engage, and monetize their lands and creations.”

The co-founder is now predicting double-digit growth throughout the rest of the year. The next sprint cycle should see Sandbox fully open to the public as it moves beyond the beta phase. 

Beyond that, the company plans to launch the metaverse project on smartphones next year. That would see Sandbox tap into the mobile gaming market, accounting for half of the gaming industry’s $183 billion revenue last year. 

Microsoft has blamed Britain’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA) for “irrationally” blocking its $68.7 billion takeover of Call of Duty video game maker Activision.

The tech giant announced its plan to acquire Activision to “bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device,” back in January 2022. The proposed takeover aimed to bring Activision’s popular franchises, like Call of Duty, under Microsoft’s umbrella.

“Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard for $95.00 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion, inclusive of Activision Blizzard’s net cash,” stated the company.

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However, its bid faced regulatory obstruction amid concerns over industry consolidation. The deal’s block provoked Microsoft to appeal, heightening anticipation for the outcome and its potential implications on the gaming landscape.

The regulatory body blocked Microsoft’s takeover of Activision in April, saying it would encourage market monopolies and stifle competition in the growing video game streaming market.

EU offers favorable conditions for businesses

The company has accused the regulator of making “fundamental errors” while blocking its deal.

Microsoft has claimed the CMA had not taken “proper account of three long-term commercial agreements which Microsoft had entered into with the other party” in the filing with the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

After the ruling, Microsoft president Brad Smith slated the regulator, suggesting the decision conveyed a “clear message” that the European Union (EU) offered more favorable conditions for starting a business in comparison to Britain.

Additionally, Activision, which is also the creator of the popular mobile game Candy Crush, accused the UK of having an unwelcoming business environment, stating that it was “closed for business.”

Hence, while the CMA has halted the acquisition, the EU has given the green light for the merger.

Need for broader understanding

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt expressed his belief that regulators should understand their “wider responsibilities for economic growth” following the blockage of the deal.

“I would not want to undermine that at all, but I do think it’s important all our regulators understand their wider responsibilities for economic growth” stated Hunt.

One of the reasons companies like Microsoft and Google are interested in investing in the UK is due to the presence of independent regulators that are not influenced by politicians, argued Hunt.

‘Takeover won’t be unfair’

The fact that the deal was blocked by the UK but welcomed by the EU has made headlines. Evidently in giving the green light, EU officials believe Activision’s takeover by Microsoft won’t be unfair.

In the meantime, it is still awaiting a confrontation with the US Federal Trade Commission which has filed a lawsuit to block the deal. The trial is scheduled to start in early August, with a decision expected by the end of the year.

EU approves — with conditions to license to rivals access to Activision's content for 10 years — @Microsoft's $MSFT's deal to buy 'Call of Duty' maker @Activision https://t.co/kjSxzJzjwm via @YahooFinance

— Alexis Keenan (@alexiskweed) May 15, 2023

“Where we diverged with the CMA was on remedies,” stated Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief.

She stated that a 10-year free license was granted to consumers, enabling them to stream all Activision games they hold licenses for via any cloud service.

“And why did we do this instead of blocking the merger?” she questioned.

“Well, to us, this solution fully addressed our concerns. And on top of that, it had significant pro-competitive effects.”

However, the Chief Executive of the CMA Sarah Cardell reiterated her support for the decision, emphasizing the regulator’s objective to establish favorable conditions for competition that would foster the growth of both large and small companies.

“I don’t find that we are operating sort of, broadly speaking, in a hostile environment,” stated Sarah.

Tech giant Google is allegedly manipulating search to favor liberals and tip elections, reports the New York Post. The company is using its virtual monopoly as a search engine to “elevate liberal views, stifle conservatives, and manipulate children,” according to a research report by Dr. Robert Epstein.

Epstein, who has spent the last decade monitoring Google’s manipulation of newsfeeds, search engine results, and YouTube suggestions, shared his latest report with the Post.

“Google has the power to change minds and move elections to suit its liberal corporate worldview,” according to the Post, citing the report.

Google shifted 6 million votes to Biden

Social media and the internet have become influential parts of political campaigning worldwide, as they are used to sway voter sentiments through various platforms.

However, the researcher claims that Google alone manipulated its search engine to shift 6 million votes to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in the United States.

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“Google secretly had in 2020, using biased algorithms which skewed search results towards positive links for Biden and negative links for Trump, as well as Get Out The Vote messaging on Google’s home page targeted primarily at Democrat voters,” stated the researcher Epstein.

Liberal bias is pervasive

The liberal bias is even more pervasive, as the primary outcome of Epstein’s report reflects monitoring how Google’s massive psy-op targets children through YouTube and other products.

Google’s culture is monomaniacally liberal. Google execs have shown willingness to use the power of algorithms to intervene in elections to change voters’ minds on a massive scale.
How Google manipulates search to favor liberals and tip elections https://t.co/WQ9gg9DUQ8 @nypost

— Zel (@OneAndOnlyZel) May 26, 2023

YouTube’s ‘Up Next’ suggestions were biased towards liberal sources 76% of the time for adults. However, data from the past three months reveals that for children and teens, the percentage of suggested videos from liberal sources on YouTube is as high as 96%, according to the researcher.

“That’s how aggressive they are with our kids, because they think they’re gods. And no one has ever taken them to task, ever,” stated the researcher.

‘Google doing this since Obama took power’

Reacting to news regarding Google’s manipulation of search to favor liberals and swing votes, a Twitter user saw no surprise from the company.

“No surprise Google is behaving like media, which cherrypicks the information it reports.  Omitting inconvenient information,” reads her reaction.

This is not new. Google has been doing this since the day Obama took office. https://t.co/hMXpYpEopj

— Chuck Norris (@GreyShhadow) May 26, 2023

In another scorching tweet, a user expressed frustration and claimed “election interference is allowed” and “ignored” as long as it benefits the Democrats.

“Try finding El Salvador economic reports for the last 20 years on Google. You can’t, but the World Bank reports prove decades of growth,” a user tweeted to reflect the search manipulation of Google.

Planning for live data in 2024 presidential election

The researcher has developed the same system as Nielsen for monitoring TV ratings to capture the ephemeral data by effectively “looking over the shoulders” of real users, whom he calls field agents.

Epstein has permission to record every Google interaction from 7,566 registered voters in 50 states. The researcher has even bigger plans, as he added 1,600 children aged 5–17 to expand his “field agents” pool to 25,000.

The best way to stop Google is by exposing what they do, he argues, and to this end he has built a public dashboard to go live in the 2024 presidential election.

The platform will feature live tracking of bias on Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Bing using real-time data from his chain of law firms across the United States.

However, Google CEO Sundar Pichai promised the Congress before the 2020 presidential election that “Google does not modify any products, including Search, to promote a particular political viewpoint… [We] will not do so for the upcoming 2020 presidential election.”