“Web 3.0 and the metaverse are enabling each of us to become an explorer of our human imagination, inventing new parallel universes where we can choose the experiences we want to live.”

Biography:

Sebastien Borget describes himself as an entrepreneur and dad with 14 years of experience in growing startups and 11 years in mobile gaming. He holds a computer science engineering degree from Telecom SudParis, one of France’s leading graduate schools for engineering in information and communications technology. A true renaissance man, he speaks French (his mother tongue), English and German fluently, while reporting to have a beginner’s level understanding of Spanish and Chinese.

Borget is most well known in the space as a co-founder and the chief operating officer of The Sandbox, a decentralized virtual world that utilizes NFTs for gaming. This blockchain-driven metaverse allows users to build, own and monetize their gaming experiences using NFTs and SAND, the primary utility token of the platform. The Sandbox users can buy LAND, the platform’s term for a digital piece of real estate, alongside promotional partners and LAND owners such as Snoop Dogg, Richie Hawtin and The Smurfs brand. His work was publicly recognized, with The Sandbox being nominated for two consecutive years in Apple’s list of the App Store’s best games of 2012 and 2013. He is also the chief operating officer of Pixowl (now owned by Animoca Brands), the developer of The Sandbox game. Borget also serves as the president of the Blockchain Game Alliance, a nonprofit organization made up of over 200 key members of the industry that promotes blockchain technology within the gaming industry.

Borget’s 2022:

For many, 2022 was the year of the metaverse. Therefore, for Borget — the CEO of one of the industry’s top metaverse worlds — the year was a busy one. The Sandbox started by announcing its $50 million fund for its startup accelerator program in January, which focused on developing the open metaverse. Around this time, it announced a partnership with Snoop Dogg to create his avatar NFT collection, after which the SAND token saw a 40% gain in value. Snoop was one of many major collaborations with which The Sandbox was involved during 2022. Others included Warner Music Group, K-pop artists, the World of Women, Gucci, Playboy and Tony Hawk. 

Along with prominent celebrities and brands, The Sandbox also collaborated with companies within traditional and decentralized finance. One such collaboration was with the HSBC banking group to offer educational finance games in the metaverse, and another was with Ledger, intending to promote crypto education in virtual reality. The platform hit 2 million users during the summer, and nearly 10,000 digital parcels of LAND were resold in 2022. According to recent reports, The Sandbox entered 2023 with at least 23,000 unique LAND owners.

Borget was a keynote speaker at Web Summit 2022, discussing how to make the metaverse a reality for everyone — i.e., the open metaverse. He also touched on how the metaverse has evolved for brands and how brands can utilize digital reality to connect with communities. The Sandbox also localized the creator tools VoxEdit and Game Maker to be available in 10 languages, including Mandarin, Portuguese and Korean. According to the platform, this was to “make the creation of assets and experiences even more accessible.” It also opened new offices in the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Thailand and Uruguay.

Borget’s 2023:

Though 2023 has only just begun, The Sandbox and Borget have been active in the space, preparing for the next year of building out the open metaverse. Within January alone, Borget made appearances at the Scaleup Impact Summit, Pocket Gamer Connects London and the Web3 Investor Gathering hosted by Blockchain Founders Capital, just to name a few. 

Additionally, The Sandbox has already announced new collaborations with developers and creators like Coinhouse, Metaviva and mm2 Entertainment. According to the platform’s official announcement, partnerships with developers and brands are a major emphasis for 2023, along with more immersive experiences, expanding the internal team and creating high-value NFTs. Many in the space believe this is only the beginning of the metaverse and its potential to transform the future of social interactions.