You know the old saying “Life imitates art”? Well, “Ready Player One” author Ernest Cline and Dan Farah, who produced Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation, are about to do just that. The duo has partnered with tech company Futureverse to make a Readyverse, “a multi-world, multi-IP, interoperable open metaverse experience for mass consumers.” Yes, the book/movie about an expansive virtual reality universe is about to become an expansive virtual reality universe. Making this possibly the most literal interpretation of an IP we’ve ever seen.
This new universe will also have some licensed digital props and other IPs from the 2018 “Ready Player One” movie via a deal with Warner Bros. The team says they are still in negotiations with other brands to reach similar agreements. This is pretty necessary considering both the book and film are splattered with pop culture references.
“IP is really critical,” co-founder Aaron McDonald said. “It creates the vehicle by which users get interested to cross that boundary (to create an immersive experience). Going out (in the market) with technology but without that IP is a very hard road to walk.”
The project hopes these brand deals will help struggling studios take their entertainment franchises into immersive experiences with less of an upfront cost to them. “There’s a real problem bridging tech and Hollywood,” said Futureverse and Readyverse co-founder Shara Senderoff. “People come in like vultures and steal everything they created. Having grown up in Hollywood, it was most important for me that we change that. We’re going to be the translators to transition your IP (intellectual property) comfortably and safely.”
While the Readyverse isn’t ready for its player one just yet. The team “will have an announcement in a few weeks that people will be able to engage,” said McDonald.
When it does launch the Readyverse will work off several content-creation tools built by Futureverse. The worlds will be linked by a “digital passport” with personal information, and a ReadyPass, which is “your ticket to the show, as it were,” says McDonald.
This gives players a single sign-on, identity, avatar, billing information, and portable access to digital goods. Allowing consumers access across all the worlds as well as immersive experiences outside the Readyverse. McDonald compares the Futureverse tools that power the Readyverse to the democratizing power of the web browser, social media platforms, mobile app stores, blockchain, and Web3 technologies.
“There’s all of this new capability now to be creative as a user, to be creative with all these tools,” McDonald explains. “The popular narrative is that the metaverse is dead. But if people can type a world into existence (with AI prompts), won’t there be more worlds than ever to explore?”
Though he does point out that this is similar to the game Roblox, just cranked up to 11. It will allow users to generate tens of millions of experiences and shift easily between online worlds beyond their own.
“The future has arrived even more quickly than I imagined,” said Cline in a release. “With Readyverse Studios, we have the opportunity to leverage the revolutionary technology Futureverse has been building for several years to bring to life the best possible version of the metaverse. I’m confident with this team, we have the brightest minds and biggest hearts in place to lead us into the next chapter of our collective future… a future that would make (Ready Player One characters) Wade Watts and James Halliday proud.”
We’ll keep you posted on updates about the Readyverse as they become available.
