Ready Player One author Ernest Cline heads up Web3 multiverse game

Ready Player One author Ernest Cline is heading up his latest project, a multiverse game that involves Web3.

The product of game studios Walker Labs and Readyverse (of which Cline is one of the co-founders), the game is called Open and has been revealed in the form of a short trailer. It’s unclear whether the clip is of actual gameplay or more to give a flavor of the style, but it depicts a silver-haired person walking through a grungy warehouse. They get to an old computer screen that reads, ‘Are you ready?’ before it lights up in a colorful, gas-like portal.

The game is described as an “immersive multiverse filled with nostalgia-infused biomes featuring characters and cultural legends across iconic franchises.” So far, Rock Paper Shotgun reports that the only IPs confirmed amongst those “iconic franchises” are Reebok, the DeLorean car, and Ready Player One.

The idea of incorporating content and characters from multiple franchises in one game is not all that new. Indeed, Fortnite has been doing it since 2018, the first time it teamed up with the MCU in its season 4 collaboration. Since then, Fortnite has a seemingly endlessly expanding library of collaborations that spawn skins, builds, and weapons pulled from dozens of other IPs — even expanding to ancient topics like the Greek Gods.

What is relatively unusual, however, is that Open is described as involving Web3 in some way, a new version of the web that involves decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics. The main appeal for many tends to be its decentralized nature, meaning individuals can identify themselves without a governing authentication system.

While there’s no release date yet confirmed for Open, you can already sign up to the waitlist if it sounds up your street. Otherwise, the details for the upcoming game are thin on the ground, with a website dotted with stars on an all-black background.

Featured image: Walker Labs / Readyverse

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