Playboy is building a ‘MetaMansion’ in The Sandbox

A short preview of the new MetaMansion – inspired by the famous Playboy Mansion – shows an array of voxelated playmates lining the red carpet leading to the virtual mansion, which looks less like its IRL counterpart in Los Angeles and more like the fictitious Gatsby Mansion. One of the virtual playmates hands the player a greetings card emblazoned with the Playboy logo and the letters ‘VIP.’

Founded in 1953, Playboy has grown to become a major global media empire, with one of the world’s most recognizable trademark logos. Its new partnership with The Sandbox aligns with a broader trend of other legacy brands (such as Gucci and Christie’s Auction House) that have recently been tapping into the burgeoning metaverse as a new source of revenue and customer engagement.

“Playboy is unique and can’t be imitated,” said Sébastien Borget, co-founder and chief operations officer of The Sandbox. “This collaboration brings to the metaverse a distinctive vision of beauty that made the brand renowned around the world. Now, the Playboy brand can interact with a new metaverse-native generation in The Sandbox, sharing its history and art through a platform where everyone is united by global digital culture.”

This isn’t Playboy’s first rodeo in the world of web3. It has dabbled in virtual events – including a virtual art gallery – and it dropped its first NFT collection, called Liquid Summer, in spring 2021. Later that same year, the company followed up with the launch of the Playboy Rabbitars (pronounced like ‘avatars’), another branded NFT collection “inspired by Playboy’s most famous iconography, art, photography, celebrities and more,” per the brand’s website.

Rabbitar holders and land owners in The Sandbox “will have access to special experiences” in the MetaMansion, according to Playboy.

“After building momentum in the web3 space through a series of NFT art and collectibles releases, and testing out metaverse events such as virtual art openings and [a] virtual holiday party, creating a virtual home is the next step in building Playboy’s web3 presence and community,” said Rachel Webber, Playboy’s chief brand and strategy officer. “Our first-ever dedicated home in the metaverse will allow us to offer gameplay and social experiences, connect our IRL events to URL events, programming and more ... And on this collaboration with The Sandbox specifically, we’ve been so impressed by their talented design and development team, their cultural know-how and their exciting product roadmap – and we can’t wait to bring our plans to life together.”

Playboy said in a statement that additional details about the MetaMansion “will be shared in coming months.”

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