The popular NFT platform Nifty’s recently partnered with Warner Brothers to release Matrix avatars as NFTs. The partnership comes as the new instalment to the ever-popular movie franchise, Matrix, is expected to be released this year. 

This isn’t Hollywood’s first move into the world of NFTs. They have used the technology as a springboard for promoting movies and finding different ways of bridging the gap between artists, movies and fans.

In this article, we will explore what this collaboration is all about and also go into the details of the project. 

Let’s dive in. 

What the project is about 

The project consists of a collection of 100,000 randomly generated base avatars that users will be able to purchase at the end of every month. The marketplace Nifty’s has indicated that they want to keep the project highly interactive so users can truly connect with the product and the launch.

The Co-founder CEO of Nifty’s, Jeff Marsilio highlighted that the theme of “digital identity, and choice, and owning that identity, resonates with the themes in The Matrix franchise”.

As a consequence, these avatars will have to choose between the Blue Pill and the Red Pill from the middle of December. The Blue Pill will mean that the avatars are locked in the existing environment. Those who take the Red Pill will be able to transform these avatars into the “resistance” fighters. 

The project aims to make the experience as realistic and immersive as possible. As a consequence, they have stuck to the original theme of having avatars that are either present in the illusory world that Neo initially finds himself living in or take the red pill and escape that illusion.

While the experience itself is commendable, there is one thing that we must account for for the project. The audience who were the primary watchers of the franchise have now grown. And most of them occupy a category of people who are either not interested in crypto or are not awed by it. Thus, it might be hard to cater NFTs to them. 

On the other hand, those who call themselves crypto natives may not be familiar with the concept of Blue/Red pill from the Matrix. All that said, the immersive and transferable experience that the project brings should play in its favor.

Once successfully launched, the project will also turn out to be a massive complement to earlier PFP (profile picture) based NFT projects like CryptoPunks.

However, the CryptoPunk project signified the importance of community. Similarly, if the Warner Bros project has to succeed, then they must focus on fostering a community around the franchise. 

How can I get Matrix NFTs? 

The project consists of 100,000 random Matrix avatars that will be available on the NFT marketplace for $50 each. The launch is expected to go live on November 30th. Each character will be unique and taken from the world of the Matrix. 

The project consists of two phases. 

• The first phase initiates with the launch on November 30th. Users will have the choice to buy their favorite NFT avatars. These will be “base” avatars and will resemble a random person from the movie. Each avatar will have a combination of attributes that will be unique to them. There has been an attempt to create hyperrealistic avatars with variations from hairstyles to hair color and skin tones. These avatars have been made via the Epic Games’ MetaHuman Creator Tool.

• The second phase begins on December 16th. It will consist of the crucial decision phase for the owners. They will be given the chance to either the “Blue Pill” or the “Red Pill”. If they take the former, then their avatars will be locked within the Matrix. If, however, they take the “Red Pill” then they will be able to transform these avatars into resistance fighters. These red-pilled fighters will get fresh pairs of clothes, new hairstyles and more such accessories that will resemble the characters from the films.

Hollywood’s Foray into NFTs 

NFTs, when they were first launched, were a unique way of proving digital scarcity of items.

If you owned an NFT of a particular painting, you were the sole owner. And this wasn’t just limited to art. You could also create provably scarce copies of other digital content like videos and music.

Since its boom early-2020, the focus has been on exploring different ways of bridging the gap between NFTs and art. 

There is one thing that has remained persistent in the pursuit of building that bridge, which is to create communities where members from all walks of life come together and share unique experiences. Since these experiences are tokenized, they can easily be traded amongst users creating an entirely new form of creator economy. 

And who gets to benefit most from the emergence of this new type of economy?

Artists and content creators alike who have been working tirelessly to create new types of relationships with their audiences.

Not only does the technology open a new form of relationship to be built, it also facilitates the creation of mutually beneficial micro societies based around a central point – the artist or the creator. 

Hollywood, thus, is placing the absolute best bets when it comes to embracing the space. In fact, for Nifty’s this isn’t their first partnership with Warner Bros’. They earlier collaborated with the debut project on Nifty’s platform after it successfully raised $10M. 

The project was known as “Space Jam: A New Legacy”, which also featured  Even 

Lionsgate has released NFTs previously based on the popular Saw movie franchise. 

Perhaps Legendary was the first to create two NFT collections with Boss Logic and 

Terra Virtua Ltd. The objective was to create NFT experiences around the movie Godzilla vs Kong. 

Even Fox has created a $100M “creator fund” specifically for the NFT space. They have decided to launch this fund through the Blockchain Creative Labs and its aim is to commercialize characters and other types of art. 

Conclusion 

There is no doubt that the emerging creator economy has its own advantages.

Creators get to monetize their work in different ways. And users get to experience the content in much different ways. Imagine owning a GIF of your favorite star who has created a custom message for only a select few people – isn’t that an incredible experience! 

What the future holds with such collaborations we don’t know – but what we do know that it is going to be supremely exciting.

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