Hong Kong’s Ocean Park Partners starts metaverse journey with The Sandbox

Hong Kong theme park Ocean Park has today announced a partnership with The Sandbox, a leading decentralised gaming virtual world and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, to create ground-breaking digital entertainment experiences in the virtual world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and gaming.

Introducing the theme park’s move into the metaverse, Ocean Park Chief Executive, Ivan Wong advised “as Ocean Park celebrates its 45th anniversary in 2022, the Park is transforming itself in many innovative ways. Not only are we revamping the Park into brand-new retail, dining and entertainment, wellness and adventure zones, but we are also heading into the metaverse to reimagine the way we engage consumers, the way they connect with one another, and their adventures at Ocean Park..

“Our partnership with The Sandbox is one of the new initiatives that the Park has embarked on and a strategic move for the brand. It empowers the Park to develop immersive experiences, events and products in formats never before seen, and venture into new business areas made possible by technology. We will fill our virtual land at The Sandbox with creative content and offerings that are distinctively Ocean Park. We are confident that our fans and the NFT community will welcome the opportunity to explore Ocean Park in a whole new dimension while creating and sharing their user-generated content on our platform.”

Sebastien Borget, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of The Sandbox, added “we are thrilled to welcome Ocean Park to The Sandbox metaverse. As one of Asia's most dynamic leisure and resort destinations, Ocean Park also plays an iconic role in Hong Kong's cultural and entertainment landscape.

“We will work with them on setting the first example of how entertainment can be leveraged with NFTs and play-and-earn to engage and reward both local visitors and those from around the globe.”

Looking to revitalise its offering, Ocean Park last year announced plans to develop glamping and zip-lining facilities in order to reposition itself as a holiday resort.

It also advised that it will phase out rides including the Ferris Wheel and Mine Train to reduce costs, and will continue to operate seven or eight attractions, all of which have launched in the past decade.

In August, Ocean Park issued an invitation to bidders to join the first round of the tender process for three new zones in its HK$6.8 billionn (US$876 million) overhaul plans.

The new zones are planned to be for an adventure and wellness zone, a dining and entertainment zone and a retail zone.

Image credit: Ocean Park.