In Brief:
- Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox, has opened a Discord conversation to SAND holders and LAND owners as the firm gears up to release The Sandbox Studio to the public.
- In its first month, the AI game engine attracted over 12,000 applications, yet entry remains limited to roughly 30 alpha creators at this stage.
- According to the Studio’s roadmap, a public launch is planned for October, which would extend its browser-based, text-to-game toolset to the platform’s broader creator community.
Before The Sandbox Studio becomes available to everyone, the company is surveying its LAND owners about what they’d like the tool to deliver.
Sebastien Borget, who serves as COO and co-founder of The Sandbox, urged SAND holders and every LAND owner to take part in an open discussion on Discord, explaining that the Studio’s teams are seeking hands-on feedback ahead of the public rollout.
Calling #SANDfam members and all LAND owners, @TheSandboxGame teams want to hear from you as The Sandbox Studio is preparing for its public release.
Join us on Discord for an open conversation@SebastienView on X ↗
The appeal arrives at a moment when interest in the tool far outstrips the available slots. The Sandbox reports that more than 12,000 people have applied to trial The Sandbox Studio in the month since its launch, though only around 30 creators have gained entry so far.
What the Studio does
The Sandbox rolled out the Studio on June 9. Built as an AI-native game engine, it converts a written prompt into a playable, live multiplayer game directly in the browser — describe the game you want, and the engine assembles it.
Games created this way are capable of running on browser, mobile and desktop, with The Sandbox intending to add Telegram and Steam integration down the line.
The company notes that more than 400 studios and thousands of games informed the tool’s development, which means its templates and workflows are grounded in genuine player behavior and retention data rather than design theory.
A deliberately small alpha
Keeping the tester group tight is intentional. Today’s cohort features builders seasoned in Roblox, Unity and Unreal Engine, together with developers already using AI coding tools like Cursor, OpenAI Codex and Claude Code.
The Sandbox says that limiting access has allowed its team to offer hands-on support, host small workshops and respond to feedback within days rather than through a drawn-out development cycle. Going forward, it aims to bring in as many as 10 additional creators weekly.
A closed Alpha Creator Game Jam is functioning as the first genuine production trial. Running from July 2 to July 31 with a $5,000 prize pool, the contest will name its winners on Aug. 7, with entries assessed on creativity, execution and gameplay.
A recent engine update overhauled the editor, software development kit, asset pipeline and application programming interfaces. Creators are now able to rearrange project assets without having to manually fix scene references or actor links.
October target
According to the Studio Engine roadmap, a public launch is set for October, bringing multiplayer, monetization, over 10 genre templates and kits, asset and skill collections, and AI-first creation. That date is indicated rather than locked in.
The case being made to LAND owners centers on distribution. Games that are self-published and creator-built would hand the platform a richer catalog of open experiences and steer its public image toward user-generated content — a course Borget has been highlighting for over a year.
Background
The Sandbox originally debuted in 2012 as a 2D mobile game before being rebuilt in 2019 around 3D voxel creation, no-code tools and token-based ownership. Within the new Studio, payments operate on $SAND.
The community Borget is now consulting is substantial. As of 2025, he tallied 6 million user wallets, 25,000 LAND owners and 60,000 NFT holders across the platform.
The Studio represents the company’s third generation of creation tools, and its wager is that narrowing the distance between an idea and a finished game will move that audience from playing toward building. The Discord thread is where the tally begins.