Earlier this year, Readyverse Studios — co-founded by blockchain technology company Futureverse and Ernest Cline, the mind behind the sci-fi franchise Ready Player One — announced “The Readyverse,” an interactive platform for Metaverse games and experiences. Readyverse Studios has partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to help bring the popular novel into the web3 metaverse. WBD distributed the 2018 film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg.
Today, the studio introduced its first project set to launch soon in The Readyverse.
“Open” is a third-person battle royale experience in which players compete against each other in game show-style multi-round cooperative modes using different game mechanics, such as shooting, tactical positioning, and driving. The Readyverse Studios founders debuted Open in a trailer today during the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival.
And of course, the new experience features a Ready Player One biome where players can explore environments, acquire skins inspired by the novel, and compete against each other. Additionally, Open has other biomes with recognizable characters from popular IP. In the trailer, viewers see Ready Player One protagonist Wade Watts (aka Parzival) walking past nostalgia products like a DeLorean, a TV, and an old video game console.
For those unfamiliar with Cline's work, Ready Player One takes place in the year 2045, when the planet is on the verge of collapse. As a means of mental escape, the majority of humans use a virtual reality simulation called OASIS. When the creator of the simulation dies, a message is sent to users that the first person to discover the digital Easter egg gets ownership of the OASIS. Watts, an orphaned teenager and avid gamer, enters the competition as he faces off against evil corporate employees working for a greedy CEO who wants to control and monetize the OASIS through intrusive online advertising.
Readyverse Studios says Open is “the first AAA-quality metaverse experience interoperable with AAA IP that leverages web3 technology,” and is named after the principles that The Readyverse leverages, such as “asset interoperability, digital ownership, decentralization, And security.” Much of this technology is due to Futureverse, a platform that includes 11 companies such as game studios and blockchain startups.
Open was also developed with Walker Labs, a video game company and next-gen web technology developer that released an open-world multiplayer action-adventure shooter called Walker World in 2022.
Open is currently being developed for PC. Interested players can register for early access starting today.
