The Sandbox gives Studio a few extra weeks of creator testing on multiplayer, shop and avatars before public launch

In Brief:

• The Sandbox SAND $0.04323 ▲ +1.3% (official site) is stress-testing Studio’s multiplayer, monetization and avatar systems with Alpha and Beta creators before the AI game creation platform opens to a wider audience, the company said.
• Public Launch is being held back by “a few extra weeks,” according to the company, and November is set aside for those three systems.
• A partnership with Xsolla, announced in October, powers Studio’s monetization, and the first in-game shop and player inventory systems are now in testing.

Alpha and Beta creators will test Studio’s multiplayer, monetization and avatar systems before the public gets access, after The Sandbox said Nov. 5 that it is holding the platform’s public launch for a few more weeks.

The company explained the wait in its October update for Studio, published Oct. 30: “Rather than rush the last step, we’re giving ourselves a few extra weeks to stress-test and polish Studio with our Alpha and Beta creators before opening it more broadly.”

No public launch date was given.

The three systems in testing

Multiplayer comes first. According to The Sandbox, Studio now has real-time server-authoritative multiplayer, matchmaking, lobbies, dedicated servers, networked gameplay and local testing tools. Starter templates are being updated so multiplayer works out of the box.

Monetization is next, with the first in-game shop and player inventory systems now in testing. The company said they support permanent items, consumables, free items and persistent ownership between sessions.

Avatars are the third piece. The shared Avatar system is heading toward Beta testing, and The Sandbox said it is reworking templates so Avatar support comes built in by default. The company’s September roadmap described it as a system that lets players carry the same customized avatar across supported The Sandbox games.

“November is about putting these systems under real pressure, gathering feedback, and making the final adjustments before launch,” The Sandbox said.

Payments run through Xsolla

The shop builds on The Sandbox’s partnership with Xsolla, which was announced in October. Per The Sandbox, Xsolla operates across 200+ countries and territories, supports 1,000+ payment methods and handles more than 130 currencies.

The integration gives Studio creators access to Xsolla’s Web Shop, Pay Station, in-game purchasing, fulfillment and fraud protection, so they don’t have to build that infrastructure themselves. Players will be able to pay in their own currency with cards, local wallets, bank transfers and other regional methods, The Sandbox said.

“For creators, the idea is straightforward: build the game, decide what makes sense to sell, and let the commerce infrastructure handle much of the complexity behind payments, tax, compliance, and fulfillment,” the company said.

The October update did not explain how SAND fits into the shop being tested.

Game jams and Meshy AI

October brought two more game jams for creators. The WTF? Jam called for mobile-first games built to be shared, and Larry Hryb, the former Xbox spokesperson known as Major Nelson, was back as judge. Prizes totaled $4,000, including a social ads budget for the winning game.

The Halloween Game Jam received 31 submissions and offered a $6,400 prize pool split across main awards and special categories. Winners of both jams have been announced.

The Sandbox also continued its work with Meshy AI, a tool that generates 3D models from text prompts or reference images. Serafin Sanchez of Meshy built 3D assets during a livestream with The Sandbox. Later in October, Meshy ran a webinar titled AI Assets. Real Gameplay with Philip Pardoe, a game designer at The Sandbox. The session covered how to iterate quickly, how to keep a consistent visual style across an asset set and how to turn those assets into a tested, playable level in Studio.

Background

Studio entered beta in August. The Sandbox said that by September it had pushed two engine updates and Beta Game Jam winners had published more than 40 games.

The remaining work before launch, as listed in the September roadmap, was multiplayer on servers hosted by The Sandbox, Xsolla-powered monetization, the cross-game avatar system, in-game chat powered by Discord and a larger asset library. The company is also reworking sandbox.game into a discovery platform for games made with Studio.

Wednesday’s post on X mentioned only the multiplayer, monetization and avatar work. The October update ended with a single line: “A few more weeks of testing. Then: Public Launch.”