Ready Player One creators team up to build The Readyverse

For years, every tech executive pitching the metaverse used Ready Player One as their ultimate blueprint. Now, the people who actually created that world are teaming up to build it in real life.

AI and metaverse infrastructure firm Futureverse announced the launch of Readyverse Studios. The new venture is co-founded by Futureverse founders Shara Senderoff and Aaron McDonald alongside Ernest Cline, the author behind Ready Player One, and Dan Farah, who produced the 2018 blockbuster film adaptation.

Bringing the OASIS to life across Web3

The studio plans to roll out "The Readyverse" sometime in 2024 as a connected platform of interoperable digital experiences. The premise is straight out of the novel: an open metaverse where fans can jump across multiple worlds and IPs with provable digital ownership.

To kick things off, Readyverse Studios secured an exclusive partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to bring the Ready Player One franchise to the metaverse across web3. On top of that, the studio locked down exclusive web3 rights to all of Ernest Cline's future literary properties.

Futureverse is providing the underlying tech stack, which has reportedly been in development for more than five years. The infrastructure spans Web3 protocols, virtual and augmented reality environments, and generative AI creation tools aimed at helping both Hollywood studios and everyday consumers build custom assets.

Citing a report from Citi, the studio pointed out that the broader metaverse market could swell to $13 trillion by 2030, and they intend to be the main portal leading consumers there.

Why it matters

If you love Ready Player One, having the original creators build the actual platform sounds like a dream. The promise of taking your avatar and gear seamlessly across distinct gaming universes is the holy grail of virtual worlds, and it is definitely worth keeping an eye on when early access opens.

That said, we think the project faces massive structural hurdles. The hardest part of building the OASIS was never the code; it was convincing fiercely competitive mega-corporations like Disney, Sony, and Nintendo to let their crown-jewel characters coexist under someone else's roof.

Warner Bros. signing over Ready Player One is a clever marketing victory, but building an interoperable consumer internet requires far more than one studio's catalog. In an era where tech hype has aggressively rotated from Web3 to generative AI, Readyverse Studios is betting big that sheer IP nostalgia can revive interest in the metaverse. If the execution amounts to nothing more than another gated sandbox selling branded digital collectibles, consumers will check out quickly.