Products
Protocols
Ecosystem
Is the metaverse dead? Not quite.
In July, Futureverse Co-Founder and CEO Aaron McDonald joined Josh Siegler from 1RT Partners on the 50T Talks podcast to unpack why the core ideas behind the metaverse, like immersive content, persistent identity, and digital ownership haven’t disappeared. They’ve evolved. And they’re now being accelerated by the rise of generative AI.
“The word ‘metaverse’ might have died,” said Aaron. “But the thing it represents has only accelerated.”
As exciting as it sounds, today’s open metaverse isn’t about slipping on some goggles and disappearing into a single virtual world. It’s about enabling users to move identity, content, and assets freely between experiences – and AI is helping build that future faster than ever.
Content creation is becoming more accessible and widely distributed. But as the volume of content explodes, one thing becomes more important than ever: identity. When anyone can spin up a new game world in seconds, the thread that connects them all is a portable, persistent identity that moves with users and makes every experience feel personal.
Take Barça.Pass as an example. The largest single web3 wallet deployment in sports history will give 11 million fans with Barça IDs instant access to personalized digital identities and exclusive digital experiences, plus it opened an onboarding ramp to more than 230 million other fans around the world.
Behind the scenes, it’s powered by Futureverse’s enterprise-grade identity system, Pass, and built on open-source protocols and The Root Network. But for fans, it’s all completely invisible. With a single click, they’re ready to explore a growing world of digital experiences built around the club.
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The infrastructure supports upcoming features like official Barça avatar creation, where fans will be able to spin up custom digital collectibles through Barcelona’s Shopify storefront. It’s a glimpse at how blockchain and AI can enable massive consumer experiences, and provide a solid foundation for persistent fan engagement in the metaverse era.
The metaverse isn’t burning out, it’s branching out. Today, it’s powered by AI, guided by identity, and anchored in ownership. For builders and brands, the opportunity isn’t in waiting for the word ‘metaverse’ to trend again, it’s in designing for the open, interconnected digital world that’s already here.
If you’re ready to explore what that looks like for your business, we’re here to talk.
Our AI content creation platform, ALTERED STATE, hit an exciting milestone, passing the 10,000 user-generated creations mark. It’s another clear signal that AI-native tools are gaining real traction in the creative space.
To celebrate, the team launched a “10K for 10 Days” campaign, giving away 10,000 platform credits and inviting users to keep building through a series of creative challenges ranging from lost relics to final game bosses.
The responses showed just how far people could push the tool, revealing a bigger story about the potential it unlocked. The creativity on display, from the wild to the weird and the technically complex, proved that with the right tools, users can innovate in ways they simply couldn’t before.
ALTERED STATE is more than just another design tool – it’s a creation engine that helps people go from idea to interactive object in seconds. Whether you’re generating assets, refining materials, or publishing to your pipeline, its blend of powerful AI and user-focused functionality unlocks more flexible ways to build.
When content creation becomes this accessible, everything from production timelines to creative output changes. For studios shipping games and brands building immersive campaigns, ALTERED STATE shows how AI can reduce costs and make it easier to deliver game-ready, interoperable assets at scale.
Building on ALTERED STATE’s surge to 10,000 creations, the AI platform is also changing how gamers and developers think about avatar customization.
Most games still rely on preset-based avatar systems. You pick a base model, spend hours tweaking sliders, choosing hair, clothes, maybe a few accessories, and still end up with a character that feels like a variation of the same template and not truly yours.
The desire for deeper customization and true ownership is clearly there, but the functionality often isn’t. In Baldur’s Gate 3, for example, players spent nearly 16% of total playtime in the character creator. And in a recent study published on Patent PC, 74% of users said their avatar’s appearance impacts their confidence in virtual spaces.
That’s where ALTERED STATE comes in. Our AI creation platform flips the model with 100% custom avatars. There’s no base character to edit or work around. Players start with a prompt, and the platform generates a game-ready, original 3D avatar from scratch.
There’s real value in this difference. Research shows that when players can shape their avatars in meaningful ways, they feel more connected to the experience, which can lead to longer sessions, higher engagement, and more return visits.
For developers, this is a gamechanger. They can use ALTERED STATE’s APIs to allow users to generate, rig, and customize an avatar they own in-game. There’s no need to build or maintain a custom avatar pipeline. Just plug it in and let players take the lead.
Even platforms offering cross-game avatars usually start from standard templates. ALTERED STATE goes further, making every avatar bespoke from the first click. Now, players can get true expression, brands can deliver new user identities, and dev teams can avoid the time and cost of building custom tools for their players.
The migration has begun. Candy collectibles are now making their way to The Root Network, kicking off a secure, multi-step transition. The first move? Vaulting assets to prevent duplicates across chains – ensuring a seamless experience and keeping all trading activity on a single, unified network.
The next generation of MLB fandom came to life with two exclusive Candy drops, both selling out in under 24 hours. The 2025 MLB Rookie ICONs collection spotlighted rising stars shaping the future of baseball, alongside legends who paved the way. Fans also got to commemorate a major moment in baseball history with Clayton Kershaw’s 3,000th strikeout featured as the first Milestone Mark of the 2025 season.
We officially joined forces with THINK to support the option for users to swap from $ASTO to $THINK. Users have a 90-day window to swap their tokens, and we’re contributing 25,000,000 THINK to a bonus pool for early converters. We’re excited about working alongside the team at THINK to unlock new possibilities for developers and builders working at the intersection of AI and web3.
Our technical team released a series of GitHub repos, giving developers direct access to the Universal Blueprint Framework (UBF) standard and its applications. The release includes UBF SDKs and standalone Futureverse SDKs that expose core services to game engines, making it easier to integrate interoperable infrastructure and helping reduce fragmentation in blockchain gaming.
Fueled by the release of the Superman movie, DC fans soared into July – and Candy’s superhero-sized celebration didn’t disappoint. The campaign kicked off with the All-Star Superman Collected Edition DC3 drop and an Overdrive Crafting Event, enabling collectors to upgrade their DC3 variant covers for foil or motion variants and earn a Superman Achievement Badge. The festivities continued with the Daily Planet Collection Challenge, featuring Superman Unlimited (2025-) #1 motion variant covers, each spotlighting different DC characters. Every DC3 included a bonus insert from The Daily Planet, featuring original editorial content by DC writer Ivan Cohen. Fans who completed the full set unlocked a Gold Foil Modern Homage Cover of Action Comics #1 and a special Daily Planet Achievement Badge.
July brought plenty of activity across X Spaces, podcasts, and live events – showing up, tuning in, and going deeper with the community. The team shared fresh updates, sparked new conversations, and dropped a few surprises along the way.
Candy Digital’s Senior Marketing and Community Manager, Shae Biron, connected with partners and the DC community across multiple events. She also took the stage as a speaker on the Future of Collecting panel – making history as part of the first-ever web3 panel at the original and largest Comic-Con in the world, which draws over 135K attendees annually and brings together fans, creators, and industry leaders from across the globe. For the first time ever, all the major digital collectible projects shared the stage, marking a milestone moment for the space. Watch the replay here: SDCC Future of Collecting.
Spending time with the DC Bat Cowl community was a major highlight of the week – sparking meaningful in-person conversations and rekindling the kind of connection that only happens face-to-face. The event also served as a key moment for Shae to engage with DC partners, align on long-term vision, fine-tune upcoming priorities, and strengthen the partnership moving forward. With momentum building, the future of digital collectibles in the DC universe has never looked more exciting.
Prior to the event, Shae promoted the Future of Collecting panel on the Nerd Chat SDCC Pre Game X Space and TRU Media Group’s Future Watch, while also joining TRU’s livestreams to break down the new Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps movies through the lens of fandom and collecting.
Shae also joined Aaron McDonald and Prezweb3 on Future of Gotham: Self-Custody Updates, Futureverse Collectors, where they revealed the successful migration of the first Bat Cowl to The Root Network. This milestone marks the start of Candy’s broader migration – unlocking self-custody for nearly 17 million digital collectibles.
Aaron and the THINK team kicked off the THINK TGE Pre-Party, walking through the phases to come in the Token Launch.
Finally, Leni Ayoub, Head of Intelligence at Futureverse and THINK, appeared on Building Tomorrow: Aethir and Futureverse Redefine AI in the Metaverse, covering the process and value of building immersive and interoperable experiences. Tune in to hear Leni’s take on what it all means for the future – an immersive internet that allows for ecosystem cross-pollination with the UBF interpreter.
Thanks for joining us for the July edition of Futureverse News. Our aim is to keep you in the loop on all the latest product announcements, thought leadership, and company updates. Stay tuned to our social channels and sign up to get the latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox. Until next time, remember, we’re not building the future. You are. 💫
