A multi-world, IP-based metaverse experience based on Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One novel and its film adaptation has been announced by the AI and metaverse technology company Futureverse, and will launch sometime in 2024.
Futureverse, which was co-founded by Shara Senderoff and Aaron McDonald, announced on Twitter that they were teaming up with Cline and Dan Farah, the film’s producer, to launch Readyverse Studios, which aims to create “a dynamic interactive platform of interconnected digital experiences.” The studio has partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery for the exclusive rights to bring the Ready Player One franchise to the metaverse.
“Readyverse Studios is laying the groundwork to bring the promise of the open metaverse depicted in Cline’s Ready Player One novel and the blockbuster film adaptation into a tangible reality; a multi-world, multi-IP, interoperable open metaverse experience for mass consumers,” the Futureverse Twitter thread says. “The Readyverse will champion the principles of the open metaverse, which are provable digital ownership, community-owned infrastructure, decentralization, security, and interoperability.”
The studio also maintains exclusive web3 rights to all future works from Cline, with additional brands and franchises on the way. “No IP has shaped the global culture and conversation around the metaverse more than Ready Player One.”
“We’ve already been begun conversations quietly with a few major studios and significant rights holders of beloved IP and they’re all leaning into figuring out collaborations with us,” Farah said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “Everyone’s really excited about this being the way to bring their IP to the metaverse. The Warner team has been super excited and supportive, and I think that the Ready Player One franchise rights will be the first of many IP rights deals we do with Warner.”
“The future has arrived even more quickly than I imagined,” Cline said in the same interview. “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 Wade Watts and James Halliday proud.”
Of course, a future that would make Wade Watts proud would likely not include an overreliance on the digital world. With source material that highlights the negatives of the in-universe Oasis, Futureverse will have to work to avoid the same pitfalls when the Readyverse launches next year.