The Sandbox expands to Germany with the acquisition of game development studio Sviper
Senior-level development, engineering and creative talent based in Hamburg, Germany’s main gaming tech hub, joins The Sandbox, focusing on expanding metaverse social and gameplay features
HONG KONG – 28 February 2023 – The Sandbox, a leading decentralized gaming virtual world and subsidiary of Animoca Brands, today announced it has acquired Sviper GmbH, the German game development studio founded in 2016 and known for its creative excellence working with major brand partners and its senior-level talent. Sviper adds development, engineering, and creative talent to The Sandbox’s global team and will empower the creator generation to build more engaging and fun forms of experiences focusing on social features, new multiplayer gameplay options, and new Game Maker possibilities for creators. Agnitio Capital acted as M&A adviser to Sviper in connection with the transaction.
Led by CEO Ole Schaper and CPO Mark Buchholz, the leadership team of Sviper has over 25 years of experience working with well known brands in mobile, PC, and multiplayer gaming. Sviper has been collaborating with The Sandbox for over a year and is fully integrated into the platform’s ecosystem. Sviper’s team currently has 40 members, based in the gaming tech hub in Hamburg, and it is now hiring for The Sandbox in Germany. Interested talent can apply here.
Sviper Team in Hamburg (December 2022)
“The Sandbox’s German team is a creative powerhouse that is already advancing the gameplay possibilities available to our internal teams and The Sandbox creators at large,” said Sebastien Borget, COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox. “From adding social features to designing rules creators can use to prototype game logic to implementing powerful multiplayer features, our Hamburg team is supercharging the metaverse’s creative potential.”
“We’ve built a high level of trust with The Sandbox Germany team as they’ve demonstrated tremendous innovation and quality by both working with major partners and ideating on new gameplay concepts,” said Arthur Madrid, CEO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox.
“We are thrilled to join The Sandbox and contribute to the creation of a cutting-edge virtual world that combines gaming, creativity, and community,” said Ole Schaper, CEO and Co-Founder of Sviper. "We believe that The Sandbox has enormous potential and we look forward to working with the team to bring this vision to life.”
“The Sandbox is a visionary enterprise with countless fascinating aspects beyond traditional game development,” said Mark Buchholz, CPO and Co-Founder of Sviper. “The ability to create innovative, social user-generated gaming experiences, the growing social platform, and the revolutionary aspects of Web3 are just some of the key features.”
Sviper team members with Sebastien Borget, COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox (January 2023)
Part virtual real estate, part amusement park, The Sandbox fully embraces the idea of the metaverse as a continuous shared digital space where worlds and heroes collide to make magic. Over 400 partners have joined The Sandbox, including Warner Music Group, Ubisoft’s Rabbids, Cut The Rope, Tony Hawk, Gucci Vault, The Walking Dead, Invincible, Snoop Dogg, Deadmau5, Steve Aoki, SM Entertainment, The Smurfs, Care Bears, and Atari, all following The Sandbox team’s vision of empowering players to create their own experiences using both original and well-known characters and worlds.
Find more information on The Sandbox on our Medium page: https://medium.com/sandbox-game
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About The Sandbox
The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, is one of the decentralized virtual worlds that has been fueling the recent growth of virtual real estate demand, having partnered with major IPs and brands including Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, The Rabbids, Gucci Vault, The Walking Dead, Snoop Dogg, Adidas, Deadmau5, Steve Aoki, Richie Hawtin, The Smurfs, Care Bears, Atari, ZEPETO, CryptoKitties, and more. Building on existing The Sandbox IP that has more than 40 million global installs on mobile, The Sandbox metaverse offers players and creators a decentralized and intuitive platform to create immersive 3D worlds and game experiences and to safely store, trade, and monetize their creations. For more information, please visit www.sandbox.game and follow the regular updates on Twitter, Medium, and Discord.
About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands, a Deloitte Tech Fast winner and ranked in the Financial Times list of High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2021, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights and contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse. The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E. It has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Animoca Brands Japan, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, Notre Game, TinyTap, Be Media, PIXELYNX, and WePlay Media. Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 380 Web3 investments, including Colossal, Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or follow on Twitter or Facebook.
About Sviper
Sviper is a game development studio founded in 2016 by industry veterans with PC, mobile, and free to play experience from Germany’s biggest gaming companies. Sviper is known to deliver outstanding gameplay experiences in the highest quality. Uniting know-how, innovation, focus, and speed in a zero-politics work environment, Sviper works with some of the biggest PC and mobile IPs and partners in the world.