Ernest Cline, the bestselling creator of Ready Player One, apparently by no means realized the lesson of his personal e-book. The novelist—whose sci-fi hit depicts a dystopian world during which individuals forego societal engagement for the illusory pleasures of a Matrix-like online game world—has determined to launch his personal “metaverse” platform that shall be used to recycle worthwhile popular culture IP slop and promote it again to hapless nostalgia gooners.
Cline has teamed up with Dan Farah, the producer of the Spielberg-directed film adaptation of his book, in addition to a metaverse firm, Futureverse, to launch a brand new firm that feels like fairly probably the worst factor ever. The corporate, Readyverse Studios, will launch the “Readyverse,” described by its creators as a “dynamic interactive platform of interconnected digital experiences.” These “experiences” shall be knowledgeable by IP culled from varied franchises—which means that, finally, it sounds such as you’ll be capable of pay a subscription after which mess around in an AR/VR surroundings populated by your favourite Ghostbuster, kaiju, or Star Wars character.
Appropriately, the primary IP to be inducted into the Readyverse’s interactive hellscape shall be Prepared Participant One. In line with a press release, Readyverse Studios has partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery to “solely carry the Prepared Participant One franchise to the metaverse throughout web3.” Further “manufacturers and franchises becoming a member of The Readyverse shall be introduced quickly,” it provides.
Briefly: The man who wrote a e-book that arguably warned us concerning the risks of getting misplaced within the metaverse is now busy creating one. For all intents and functions, it is a excellent instance of what has been dubbed the “torment nexus”—a development whereby futurists write books warning us concerning the risks of sure technological concepts, solely to have hapless, money-crazed tech entrepreneurs (*cough, cough* Elon Musk) misinterpret the e-book and try to create the very thing it warned about. The one distinction right here is that Cline seems to have accomplished this all by himself, sans any craven tech billionaire.
“The longer term has arrived much more shortly than I imagined,” Cline stated, in Thursday’s press launch. “With Readyverse Studios, now we have the chance to leverage the revolutionary expertise Futureverse has been constructing for a number of years to carry to life the very best model of the metaverse. I’m assured with this workforce, now we have the brightest minds and largest hearts in place to guide us into the subsequent chapter of our collective future.”
Greater than something, the Readyverse looks like the pure endpoint for the leisure business’s unbearable “IP” obsession. Studios have lengthy insisted on treating beloved film franchises as little greater than video video games, haplessly resurrecting and rebooting them with little concern for what have been as soon as the foundational components of cinema (i.e., narrative and characters). It solely is sensible that the subsequent step could be to take the lifeless husks of these story worlds and dump them into an interactive surroundings the place shoppers can have interaction with them instantly with none have to make a film in any respect.
Personally, I’m going to carry off till the IP integrations get actually bizarre. When will the Readyverse have Eraserhead and Heaven’s Gate gameplay enabled? Someone name me when that occurs.