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There can be little doubt that 2022 will go down in history as the year of the Metaverse. Accelerated by blockchain technologies and cloud-based delivery, a once largely nebulous vision of the future is taking shape all around us. Newly coined terminology (e.g. NFTs) has become almost ubiquitous in casual conversation and new business models (e.g.play-to-earn) have reached the forefront of popular consciousness and culture, and even social media giant FB has changed its name to Meta to reflect the times. All of these developments lead to the ultimate question: Is this Metaverse thing real?
Debate about what, exactly, the Metaverse is or isn’t is outside the scope of this document. However, at a high level, when most people think of the “Metaverse,” they are often thinking about a digital alternative universe populated by human-like avatars. These avatars may be powered by AI or actual humans, and may engage in a variety of familiar human-like tasks. This engagement has the potential to generate its own unique economy which ultimately crosses over into the “real world.” That is, digital assets and content in the Metaverse may have value both within the digital world and outside of that world, just as resources and currency earned in the Metaverse may be leveraged to purchase real-world goods. Long before the blockchain, VR and AR accelerated this blurring of lines between the “real world” and the digital, early conceptions of what this alternative universe might look like were pioneered by platforms such as Second Life, but the concept was ahead of its time and ultimately needed to wait for the technology to catch up to this early, but ambitious vision.
WNDR is a cloud streaming company. WNDR is a game studio optimized to deliver premium social games. WNDR is a platform for mass distribution of AAA quality digital content. Perhaps most importantly, WNDR is a vision; a vision of what the Metaverse will look like; of how it will function; of how it will be accessed, enjoyed and monetized by billions of people around the world. WNDR will reshape the Internet experience as we know it.
By delivering highly-rendered 360-degree immersive experiences, WNDR captures much of the magic of VR and AR offerings, but without the goggles, downloads, and other barriers to adoption. Moreover, WNDR enables any user with an internet connection to experience a AAA-quality gaming experience without any specialized hardware and on any device.
In short, WNDR has prioritized solving the problem of device-agnostic access to high end content and has made sharing highly visual immersive gaming experiences as simple as sharing any URL. Whether you choose to share via an email, via text message, via placement on any website or social media platform…the WNDR.stream engine powers the delivery to any Internet-connected device with a single click.
So, while WNDR will produce a library of games and experiences in-house, the company’s approach is predicated on a model that has more in common with YouTube than with a traditional game development studio. Not only will the WNDR studio create and deliver its own intellectual property directly to consumers, but it will provide a means of mass distribution for the 10 million developers registered with game engines Unreal and Unity that are currently relying on traditional publishing models. While other cloud-gaming solutions target a dedicated audience of hardcore gamers that are more than willing to spend for both hardware and peripherals, WNDR’s model is a far more democratic one. Simply put, our market is EVERYONE that has access to the Internet and short, engaging entertainment experiences.
Today, the accessibility and speed of the Internet is giving us access to the world in seconds. Users are consuming more content and on-the-go. We scroll past IG posts, skip on TIK TOK around new music releases and watch TV clips the same way. WNDR caters to the access and ability to devour content by delivering instant 3D gameplay bursts on any browser on any device. This is the new generation of “casual gaming” with production values that approach the best in AAA-games but with far less complexity, enabling even inexperienced users to enjoy themselves without the need to spend hundreds of hours honing their skills.
WNDR creates its own titles on the WNDR platform. Episodic games with the pop culture punch. Inspired by great storytelling and iconic characters, we deliver familiar models with simple controls. But, we also deliver the high-end graphics and gaming experience that strikes right at the core of what the Premium Casual Gamer wants: instant, high-end fun.
The WNDR.verse genre of premium casual gaming represents a hybrid approach designed to stimulate engagement for brands, creators, and virtual entrepreneurs. Rather than focusing our attention on the hardcore gamer, an already crowded market that has a large number of options for hardware, game genres, and proprietary platforms, WNDR will cater to a mass audience by delivering high-impact, visually stunning and immersive experiences, that are best enjoyed in short, “burstable” chunks. This approach offers a number of advantages. Rather than attempting construction of a giant Open World that must reach scale to monetize, we are beginning with short form content, releasing short form experiences to quickly ramp up traction and build the main story arc of broader WNDR.land immersive experience. That is, we will weave together storylines and smaller “meta mini games” into a larger Metaworld, like individual squares of fabric woven into a patchwork quilt. This strategy also has the advantage of keeping costs low (as experiences are designed to be short and dynamic without the need to invest in many hours of gameplay). WNDR’s first action-packed PvP meta game “The Colosseum,” will propel the brand and its partners to the forefront of cloud-delivered Metaverse environments, and lead to the creation of a unified, profitable virtual community where we can work, play, relax, transact, socialize, and grow.
There can be little doubt that the opportunity is a significant one: A study by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) found that metaverse "will likely infiltrate every business sector in some way in the coming years, with the market opportunity estimated at over $1 trillion in yearly revenues."
WNDR’s focus on the premium casual gamer was forged from the founding team’s experience producing a crime-entertainment themed gaming portal, and more specifically, an original game built in the era of Flash. At the time, Flash games provided the foundation of easy to deliver, share, and embed and powered our first test viral game “Wall Street Massacre: Murder Madoff!'' That test launch garnered 23 million gameplays within 3 months. With only a month of development and a small, hyper-focused team, we learned that we could quickly and cost-effectively produce an interactive viral sensation…all the while using stylized stick figures as the revenge-thriller’s protagonists.
As Flash began to sunset around the web, we began to experiment with more sophisticated gaming engines, including Unreal Engine and Unity. Even back then, we understood that this would be the future of casual games, particularly if they could be delivered directly via the web with no download needed.
We coined a term for our target audience, the Premium Casual Gamer(PCG)….simply put, they want the high-end gaming experience without the cost, confusion and complexity of traditional AAA franchise titles.
In the popular mind, the Metaverse is and will be a massive open world experience that runs parallel to our own: Like the Matrix trilogy, Ready Player One, or even newer takes like Severance, even casual users sporadically plug in for hours at a time before returning to their more mundane IRL experiences. But is this really how it will be? We do have VR and AR to thank for the ubiquitous memes of noobs running headlong into the familiar walls of their very own living rooms, knocking themselves senseless to the delight of millions of onlookers on social media, but surely there is something more to it than that.
The allure of building an all connected 3D world where brands and players can coexist is exciting, particularly when the transition from this new digital playground to the real world is instantaneous and requires neither special hardware devices nor the hundreds of hours of gameplay commitment needed for typical AAA console or PC titles. Moreover, the traditional model of AAA game production requires years to produce a single title and eight or nine-figure budgets are more the norm than the exception.
To create a solution for a mass audience of online entertainment enthusiasts (and for ourselves as proud members of the same demographic group), we had to develop the technology to power the vision with lessons learned from our work producing Flash games.
Tech Demo 2018
Device Agnostic
The WNDR model is based on the principle of “play everywhere” — we make seamless gaming a reality by delivering similar experiences on mobile, desktop, and Smart TV. In line at Whole Foods? Mobile play. Laying on the couch? Use your mobile phone as a virtual remote controller for Smart TV play or tap your Playstation or Xbox controllers. No need for clunky VR goggles, or messing up your hair with some elaborate visor contraption.
Blockchain Connections
A key point with WNDR is that there is not one virtual world, but the potential for many worlds generated from both inside and outside of the company’s creative team. So, WNDR will ultimately become a universe that evolves rapidly to meet changing cultural tastes and leverage new technologies. Our ability to enable other development teams to build upon and monetize our cloud-based delivery technology will lead to massive growth potential, including the ability to feature NFTs that provide a functional utility in the context of the digital experiences delivered via WNDR (e.g. NFT custom sneakers that enable a character to run faster or jump higher, or art that can be featured on a wall in a character’s fantasy loft apartment). Even characters themselves can be developed as NFTs and owned, shared, traded, and even sold by individuals not connected to the game developers. The possibilities are truly astounding at scale.
In many ways, Blockchain gaming has already taken the center stage of the gaming world. However, most games featuring Blockchain technologies are very simplistic in appearance and have a retro 8-bit look and feel. The WNDR.stream engine’s capability to deliver hyper-realistic games will enable the company to enter the Web3 movement with a fury that will shock even the most jaded onlookers. WNDR will set the standard for premium Meta offerings, not in a year or two, but right now.
NFTs have created a space for WNDR meta games and DeFi to come together to catapult the company into this trillion dollar industry. NFTs are the new drug of choice on the Blockchain and have enabled value to be created through the principle of scarcity, even in the absence of clear utility. On speculation alone, early acolytes are paying billions for them. As a purely cloud-delivered platform, WNDR is able to bypass the regulations of the Apple’s App store and other proprietary marketplace platforms that restrict or prohibit the usage and sales of NFTs. Our open approach will enable users to take advantage of this unique mechanism of conferring asset ownership on individuals and empowering them to further monetize their assets through marketplaces that enable them to be rented, sold, traded and otherwise leveraged for financial gain.
As an example Blockchain-based games such as Axie Infinity have nearly $4.14 billion in all-time sales recorded. In as short a period as 24 hours, the company’s sales metrics show the project has seen $2.2 million in NFT sales. NFT Markets such as OpenSea and LooksRare’s have sprung seemingly out of nowhere to report $21.85 billion and $16.85 billion in NFT sales respectively, largely without the benefit of functional utility for those NFT assets.
The top five NFT projects in terms of all-time sales according to dappradar.com statistics
WNDR NFT SALES Phase 1
In the initial launch phase, WNDR will use existing second layer blockchain solutions and NFT marketplaces for limited exclusive drops. Aside from viral distribution guerilla tactics, WNDR has developed a one-click streaming solution for live social integration that any user can stream live on Twitch and or Youtube in seconds. Each meta experience in the WNDR.verse will offer pre-sales of NFTs with real in-game utility. The company remains close to infrastructure developments in Web3 so it can participate in interoperability across other metaverse platforms and across blockchain protocols when the opportunity arises.
WNDR.land/Mini Game NFT tie-ins
Though possibilities abound to feature NFTs with the context of mini games, such as our premium launch title, “The Colosseum,” key areas of focus for the Company include the following:
Virtual Land Monetization
Sales of “real estate” in the metaverse — digital renderings of properties topped $500 million last year, according to MetaMetric Solutions, and the market could soon grow into a trillion-dollar business in the near future
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Celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber have all purchased property in the metaverse of late. And just like in the real world, they’re attracting star-crazed neighbors, with one buyer recently shelling out $450,000 in real money to own virtually rendered property next to Snoop.
Scores of third parties, including real estate companies and crypto firms, are now rushing in to buy up scarce land parcels.
These firms, like real-world developers, have ambitions to build luxury virtual condos for the tech savvy and ultra-rich and invest in commercial spaces for brand activations, shopping centers and entertainment venues.
The virtual world of WNDR.Land is made up of the central zone, called Magic City, which will be featured in its first Metropolis superhero battle flying game and 15 outer Neighborhoods to be introduced in our open world release. In WNDR.Land, The Magic city has several predefined buildings such as The Colosseum, a virtual museum, a multipurpose concert stadium, a decentralized finance (DeFi) center, a shopping center and even a Casino.
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Each neighborhood block has its own characteristics since it has its own theme and particular architecture. Based on these predefined architectural styles and designs, owners can build buildings on their land or create their own properties by hiring virtual developers or buying premade WNDR estates such as residential and commercial buildings with land offerings ranging from retail space for stores to nightclubs and even entire residential buildings in which individual units may be sold, leased or perhaps even rented for the weekend (virtual AirBnB anyone?)
Here are just a few examples of the real estate offerings that would be available to purchase.
BlockChain Connection: WNDR.Block
In phase 3, we will introduce the WNDR.block, a first layer blockchain solution for high volume transactions in the WNDR.verse. It will be secure, safe, environmentally friendly and easy to use; allowing first-time users of the Blockchain environment to have access to their wallets and go from fiat to crypto and back again. While existing blockchains or Solana such as Wax may be adequate for the company’s initial phase of growth, the viral nature of the WNDR content suggests that a customized solution may be required to optimize for anticipated volume of transactions.
The development of a customized blockchain capable of high transaction throughput will enable us to develop and support ancillary initiatives, including WNDR.coin (WNDR). WNDR.coin will become the native token of WNDR.land and the WNDR.verse more generally. WNDR.coin can be used for all transactions, such as buying an NFT, rarity upgrades, in-game transactions, and marketplace purchases.
CONCLUSION
WNDR represents a new vision for the Metaverse; a vision that will be accessible to all. Powered by the WNDR.stream engine and supported by blockchain technologies, WNDR will deliver high production value short form content not just for the casual gamer, but for anyone and everyone with an Internet connection and a device of any kind.
As a seamless distribution platform for high end content, WNDR will harness the power of 10 million plus developers already registered with Unreal and Unity, offering them a turnkey approach to managing their own distribution and controlling their own destinies.
First though, we will control our own destiny by building a library of launch experiences, a digital setting of the stage for the performance to come just a bit later. More than just a proof of concept, WNDR experiences and mini games will set a new standard for cloud gameplay and reinvent the very notion of what it means to experience the Internet. Once we cross over into this new world of WNDR, there truly may be no going back.
By: Borris Bazelais
