Yuga Labs, the Web3 mega-company, has been hard at work developing its Otherside metaverse since it was first teased last year. Despite a rocky start that caused Ethereum congestion and gas prices to skyrocket, the 55,000-edition collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called Otherdeeds has seen over $1.1 billion in trading volume since its April 2022 launch. Co-founder Wylie Aronow, who has since stepped back from the project, said that the company is all-in on developing its gamified virtual world.
Holders of Otherdeed NFTs have been eagerly awaiting the game’s release, participating in virtual demos called Trips with thousands of players (called voyagers) at a time. But as the NFT market continues to struggle and interest in Yuga Lab’s flagship NFT brand Bored Ape Yacht Club has waned, Otherdeed holders are growing anxious about the game’s success. To address these concerns, Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre said that the company plans to offer more short-term experiences before Otherside is ready to be fully launched.
On Thursday, Yuga Labs brought its Otherside demos IRL, inviting 40 voyagers to a soundstage in Los Angeles to show off an expansive new space inside its metaverse. Tailored specifically toward Bored Ape holders, the event featured refreshments and products from community members that utilized their NFT character’s intellectual property (IP) in their businesses. During the demo, the selected Ape holders traversed a massive island created for the experience and were able to provide Yuga Labs with crucial feedback in real time. Chief creative officer Michael Figge said that the roughly 2.4 square kilometers of digital island was designed to act as a virtual clubhouse for the Bored Ape community and showcase Otherside’s potential use cases.
The demo was also a vote of confidence for the Bored Ape community, who are hungry to restore their social status created during the NFT boom. Richard Porfirio, who goes by the alias Richpor online, participated in the live demo and got a glimpse at how NFT characters will soon be able to meander around the space. He envisions Otherside as a multipurpose hub for millions of Web3 users, with the potential for Twitter Spaces, live events, and a marketplace for trading collectibles.
Though Otherside still has no official public release date, Figge said that the team is eager to offer a persistent space for holders as soon as possible. Conducting small-scale tests like these help Yuga Labs fine-tune details overlooked during its larger gaming experiences and provides holders with greater transparency into the status of high-priority projects.