Hong Kong’s leading news company the South China Morning Post (SCMP) collaborates with The Sandbox, a decentralized gaming virtual world to launch Hong Kong’s iconic Star Ferry Pier in the metaverse.
In Brief:
- To showcase the historical journey of Hong Kong and its oldest form of transport Star Ferry, The Sandbox created this quest game.
- The metaverse experience is a collaboration with the local metaverse studio Index Game.
- Players can interact in the game with Ferry’s longest-serving employee to understand the city’s history.
SCMP launches its metaverse offering with The Sandbox as part of The Sandbox’s Alpha Season 2. It aims to create a one-of-a-kind experience centered on Hong Kong, making it the first media company and organization in Hong Kong to launch its metaverse.
The Hong Kong Star Ferry Pier is one of more than 35 attractions that The Sandbox is offering with its new season, which will run through the month of March and is free to the public. It is one of Hong Kong’s oldest forms of transportation dating back to 1888.
The game players can enjoy the experience of being transported back in time and learning about the history of the landmark by completing various quests along the way. They will also relive iconic moments in the city from the 1980s to the present through SCMP’s reporting on the Star Ferry.
They can also learn firsthand about the complexities of an international city at the crossroads of East and West thanks to the experience created in collaboration with local metaverse studio Index Game.
The game visuals are based on the SCMP’s extensive library of photography, visual illustrations, data, infographics, and associated journalism.
The Sandbox provides an interactive game in which players can learn about the city’s history by speaking with the Star Ferry’s longest-serving employee and know about how Victoria Harbour has evolved over time.
SCMP CEO Gary Liu said, “SCMP’s 118 years of reporting and extensive library of photographs gave us the opportunity to breathe new life into historical locations in the metaverse. This serves as a bridge to connect with a new generation of readers and digital natives and we look forward to working closely with our partners to continue serving our audience.”
The South China Morning Post has been reporting for more than a century. Its efforts to enter the metaverse space have not been hidden. It launched a blockchain metadata standard for historical and archival NFTs called “Artifacts by SCMP”. SCMP had released the whitepaper announcing the release of its historical archives NFT collection.
