SAN FRANCISCO – September 2, 2020 – Animoca Brands and its subsidiary The Sandbox, a leading decentralized gaming virtual world, announced today it is partnering with Cloudco Entertainment, the owner, content producer, and global distributor of the Care Bears™ intellectual property, to bring the Care Bears and their Care-a-Lot world to The Sandbox metaverse. Through the agreement, The Sandbox players will be able to explore a virtual Care-a-Lot setting as well as purchase Care Bears-themed in-game content for use in their own game worlds.
The Sandbox is building a unique virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences using NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and $SAND, the main utility token of the platform. $SAND was recently launched via Binance, the global blockchain company behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume . The Sandbox’s vision is to offer a deeply immersive metaverse in which virtual worlds and games will be created collaboratively and without central authority. The Sandbox has secured over 50 partnerships, including Care Bears, Atari, CryptoKitties, and Shaun the Sheep, to build a fun, creative “play-to-earn” platform that offers virtual worlds and game experiences owned and created by players.
The Sandbox consists of three main components: the VoxEdit NFT (non-fungible token) builder for building game ASSETS, the Marketplace for buying and selling ASSETS, and the Game Maker tool where complete interactive games can be constructed and shared without any programming knowledge. Together, these components offer rich, easy-to-create virtual worlds and game experiences in addition to the ability to safely store, trade, and monetize creations through blockchain, allowing creators to benefit from their creations.
The Care Bears were created and launched in 1982 at American Greetings. Since their debut, the Care Bears have brought the values of caring and sharing to hundreds of millions of children and adults via their animated TV series “Care Bears: Unlock the Magic” and new YouTube-first show “Care Bears: Unlock the Music”. This partnership also aligns with the relaunch of Care Bears toys with a new master toy partner, Basic Fun!. The new toy line initially sold out online and in-store at Walmart and has experienced successful roll-outs at Target, Amazon, and a number of other leading online and brick-and-mortar retailers across the US, UK, and Canada.
The Care Bears were created and launched in 1982 at American Greetings, inspired by the hand-painted artwork of master illustrator Elena Kucharik. Since their debut, the Care Bears have brought the values of caring and sharing to generations of children and adults via their animated TV series and movies, becoming part of global culture for hundreds of millions of fans. The Care Bears’ message of cooperation and understanding has helped the brand generate more than $5B in retail sales worldwide.
Under the terms of the Care Bears agreement for The Sandbox, Cloudco will receive large digital spaces, known as LANDS, in the gaming metaverse. On these LANDS, a 3D voxelized version of the Care Bears’ Care-a-Lot kingdom will be made available to players when The Sandbox publicly launches later this year. Furthermore, Cloudco and The Sandbox have the right to produce and distribute Care Bears-inspired collectible in-game ASSETS for game creators to use in their own games, tokenized on the blockchain as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Players will be able to explore a virtual Care-a-Lot setting, complete with Care Bears-themed environment, attractions, games, and buildings with which to interact. The Sandbox is designed to support deeply immersive gaming experiences that can be shared socially, and players will be able to meet and chat in The Sandbox Care-a-Lot world using their Avatar characters in addition to playing together.
“We’re pleased to welcome the Care Bears license into The Sandbox virtual world, inviting family-friendly entertainment brands that our players have grown up with to participate in the next digital revolution where virtual worlds are 100% made, governed, and owned by players,” said Sebastien Borget, COO & Co-Founder of The Sandbox. “We are creating an appealing gaming metaverse that aims at attracting mainstream gamers and creators through their favorite brands, to build great experiences.”
“We look forward to bringing the Care Bears into a new gaming universe and creating a new generation of family entertainment experiences,” said Sean Gorman, President of Cloudco Entertainment. “Working with The Sandbox team to build an authentic Care-a-Lot in the metaverse will allow Care Bears fans to interact with the world and each other in a fun and imaginative virtual theme park setting.”
The Sandbox will offer a persistent, interactive virtual metaverse — a 3D universe created by players and secured through blockchain technology. LANDs are the unique digital locations in this universe where players can build and monetize games. They are the fundamental building blocks upon which game ASSETS (items and scripting) can be imported to create original interactive experiences. LANDS can be combined into larger groupings (ESTATES) to permit more ambitious game experiences.
The Sandbox game franchise is one of the world’s largest independent user-generated content and gaming platforms, with 40 million downloads and over one million monthly active users. The upcoming 3D based blockchain version of The Sandbox – which introduces new creative and commercial possibilities by allowing users to create 3D items and gaming worlds from the digital equivalent of building blocks – has been named one of the top 10 most anticipated blockchain games globally and one of the Top 50 Blockchain Gaming companies in the world (source: BlockchainGamer.biz).
About The Sandbox
The Sandbox team is a leading creator of world-building experiences with over 40 senior staff with 10+ years of experience building and maintaining game live operations with millions of players. The Sandbox is a community-driven gaming platform that will allow creators to monetize assets and gaming experiences on a blockchain, allowing them to benefit from their creations. Scheduled for release in December 2020 and building on existing The Sandbox IP that has more than 40 million global installs on mobile, The Sandbox will offer players and creators a decentralized and intuitive platform to create immersive 3D worlds and game experiences and to safely store, trade, and monetize creations through blockchain. For more information, please visit www.sandbox.game and follow the regular updates on Medium and Discord.
About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands is a leader in the field of digital entertainment, specializing in blockchain, gamification, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of mobile products including games such as The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes as well as products utilizing popular intellectual properties such as Formula 1®, Marvel, Garfield, Snoopy, Thomas & Friends™, Power Rangers, MotoGP, and Doraemon. Animoca Brands’ portfolio of blockchain investments and partnerships includes Lucid Sight, Dapper Labs (creators of CryptoKitties), WAX, Harmony, and Decentraland. The Company is based in Hong Kong, United States, South Korea, Finland, Argentina, and the Czech Republic. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or get updates by following Animoca Brands on Facebook or Twitter.
About Cloudco Entertainment
Cloudco Entertainment, formerly American Greetings Entertainment, is the owner for iconic entertainment brands such as Care Bears™, Holly Hobbie™, Madballs™, Packages from Planet X™, Twisted Whiskers™, Buddy Thunderstruck™, Tinpo™, and its newest IP, Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese™. Cloudco Entertainment develops multi-platform entertainment franchises across all media channels and extensive consumer merchandising programs that immerse children and adults in brands they love.
About Care Bears™
Introduced in 1982 through consumer products, greeting cards, and later a series of animated television shows and feature films, Care Bears is one of the most popular and endearing children’s properties in the world. Fans of all ages love these huggable bears from Care-a-Lot who inspire all to have fun, share, and care. The Care Bears first appeared in their own television specials in 1983 and 1984, followed up with a long-running animated TV series, and then made the leap to the big screen in 1985-87 with The Care Bears Movie trilogy. More recently the Care Bears could be seen in Care Bears & Cousins, a Netflix original CGI-animated series launched in fall 2015 and the brand-new Care Bears: Unlock the Magic, a 2D animated series featuring an all-new look and mission for the bears, launched in 2019 on Tiny Pop in the UK and Boomerang and Cartoon Network in the US.
Website: www.carebears.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/CareBears
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CareBears
Twitter: www.twitter.com/CareBears
Instagram: www.instagram.com/CareBears
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