Ready Player One isn’t just an awful book and a mediocre movie, but it’ll one day, potentially, be it’s own video game. While there already is one VR game based on the series’ fictional OASIS metaverse, Readyverse Studios is planning to make the real deal for modern VR and XR gamers.
Announced in partnership with Warner Bros Discovery and Ready Player One creator Ernest Cline back in early 2024, the upcoming “Readyverse” has been in development for a while. In the proposed metaverse platform, players will be able to create an avatar—or use an existing one—and perform a variety of activities including building a home base, driving vehicles and playing games.
Of course, the big draw of the fictional OASIS in Ready Player One was the use of real-life brands key-jingling in front of users at all times. You could play as Halo’s Master Chief with the MA5C Assault Rifle, you could drive a DeLorean from Back to the Future. Goro from Mortal Kombat could have a Xenomorph chestburster pop out of him, and you could explore the Overlook Hotel from The Shining.
In a post on LinkedIn, Readyverse Studios CEO Adam Orth put out a call for more brand partnerships for the upcoming Ready Player One style world. Orth’s profile already boasts partnerships with “Warner Bros., Netflix, Epic Games, MLB, FC Barcelona, DC, NASCAR, DeLorean, Reebok” and others, but the studio is looking to add even more brands to the virtual world.
Orth explained that the studio is “actively looking for partnerships and proven developers to create world-class VR+XR experiences around our owned Ready Player One IP”. This means that many of the experiences in the virtual world—for example, the race-style level at the start of the movie—will be created by external partners to populate the metaverse with activities.
“If you are interested in taking the next virtual steps into the largest world with the very best Metaverse IP in the universe, I want to hear from you,” the CEO told followers on LinkedIn.
An early, in-development version of the Ready Player One “ReadyVerse” is available to download now on the developer’s official website for Windows PCs. Upon starting the game, players are spawned in the bedroom of fictional OASIS creator James Halliday before being able to jump into different experiences.
Even before launch, The Readyverse has been criticised for its use of generative AI with one of the game’s big modes known as Promptopia. In this game mode, players use prompts to create creatures to fight with. Additionally, the game was also pitched as a blockchain-powered NFT product.
From the game’s most recent gameplay footage, The Readyverse still appears to be in very early stages with the project already being outclassed by a number of VRChat worlds. Additionally, with VRChat already serving as the primary metaverse for the majority of gamers who want that form of experience, it will be hard to get users to jump ship.
