Sebastien Borget

Updated January 30, 2023
By cukuwotu

“Metaverse is really this myriad of worlds that users can experience through an avatar that becomes a 3D representation of themselves.”

With 13 years of experience in developing startups, Sébastien Borget is a passionate blockchain and gaming expert who believes that Non-Fungible Tokens can revolutionize the future of gaming. He has been active as an evangelist for this cause, leading his team at The Sandbox to create NFTs accessible to all using their decentralized platform – one which was honoured in 2020’s Top 50 Blockchain Games Companies list!

Biography

Through the combination of his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer System Networking and Telecommunications at Télécom SudParis (Evry) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, respectively, Sebastien Borget had secured a foothold into an ever-expanding tech industry. His career quickly gained momentum with internships at Motorola followed by positions as COO for Wixi.com – an on-demand entertainment service connecting gamers worldwide – then later as Technical Project Manager of Ipercast, providing secure content management services to web & mobile devices based out Paris.

After working with two of the industry’s biggest names, Sebastien Borget founded his own project in 2011: Pixowl. This studio is best known for its popular game The Sandbox, and was recently acquired by Animoca Brands. Beyond that impressive title, he also leads one of gaming’s most influential nonprofit organizations—the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA), which boasts more than 200 members dedicated to advancing blockchain technology within the sector. Drawing from a vast linguistic mastery including French, English, German Spanish and Chinese – Borget continues to inspire innovation at every turn.

The Sandbox

Sebastian Borget of Pixowl developed The Sandbox in 2012, a game development platform designed to provide users with tools and an environment for creating gaming experiences without programming experience. With the “sandbox mode” feature, newcomers can craft virtual worlds by selecting elements from easy-to-navigate interfaces – which are then published and experienced by other players.

In 2018, blockchain technology enabled the groundbreaking integration of The Sandbox into a revolutionary concept: the metaverse. It was here that users were rewarded for their enjoyment with Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and tokens while programmers saw remuneration from players’ access to video game experiences. A new era had begun!

In 2018, Pixowl made a significant move in their future when Animoca Brands acquired them. This acquisition allows them to develop mobile products and video games that use blockchain technology with Play-to-Earn mechanisms – users can earn tokens as rewards for playing the game. Not only does this include partnering with Decentraland (the metaverse based on LAND NFTs) & Dapper Labs (creators of CryptoKitties), but also provides Borget an opportunity to bring The Sandbox into the decentralized world!

The Sandbox, a gaming metaverse powered by blockchain technology and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), has been supported since 2019 with investments from prominent industry players Square Enix, B Cryptos and True Global Ventures. This revolutionary platform is focused on the user’s experience first; tokenomics facilitate trade in its internal economy of 3D objects & land plots created via VoxelEdit – demonstrating how cryptocurrency can empower digital spaces for creativity and discovery.

With increasingly impressive momentum, The Sandbox metaverse continues to attract major players from across the globe. From hip-hop mogul Snoop Dogg and beloved cartoon characters like The Smurfs in March 2021, to Hong Kong tycoon Adrian Cheng of New World Development just eight months later – this creative digital universe is growing at a remarkable rate!

In November 2021, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $93 million funding round in anticipation of the release of The Sandbox Alpha. This play-to-earn event welcomed over 200,000 players eager to explore its metaverse and it proved an overwhelming success: by year’s end, they had achieved two million registered wallets and 18,500 LAND owners. Simultaneously, company executives founded The Sandbox Foundation DAO – designed to fund game projects through grants for NFT artists alongside hosting tournaments with play-to-earn incentives built into them