The Sandbox puts Studio’s multiplayer and in-game shop through Beta creator testing ahead of a broader launch

In Brief:

• The Sandbox SAND $0.04284 ▼ -6.3% (official site) says Beta creators are helping it stress-test and polish Studio, its game creation platform, before it opens to more people.
• Three systems are in testing: real-time server-authoritative multiplayer, Studio’s first in-game shop with player inventory, and a shared Avatar system.
• In a post, @Sebastien said creators need to be able to monetize their games, not only build them.

Beta creators are now working with Studio’s multiplayer and monetization systems as The Sandbox puts them under load before a wider opening of the platform.

“We’re getting close, stress-testing and polishing Studio with Beta creators before opening it more broadly,” The Sandbox wrote on X.

Posted in early November, the update means the public launch waits a few more weeks while creators work through the new systems. No public launch date has been announced.

What’s being tested

Multiplayer is the biggest part of the test. The Sandbox’s list covers real-time server-authoritative multiplayer, matchmaking, lobbies, dedicated servers, networked gameplay and local testing tools. The starter templates are getting updates so multiplayer works without extra setup.

Monetization comes next. Studio’s first in-game shop and player inventory systems have entered testing. They support permanent items, consumables, free items, and ownership that carries over from one session to the next.

Avatars round out the list. The shared Avatar system is entering Beta, which lets players take one customized avatar into any supported The Sandbox game.

According to the company, November is set aside for loading these systems, gathering creator feedback and making last changes ahead of launch.

The creator pitch

@Sebastien responded to the update on X and tied the release to how creators earn money.

“Excited about the progress of The Sandbox Studio,” @Sebastien wrote. “One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned from enabling Creators to build and publish their own games on @TheSandboxGame is that giving them the tools to create isn’t enough if they cannot monetize their creations with the same”

In the available version, the post ends there.

Payments run through Xsolla

Xsolla supplies Studio’s payment stack under a partnership The Sandbox announced in October. Creators get in-game purchasing plus an external web shop, and can sell subscriptions, in-game currency and virtual items. Payment processing, purchase fulfillment and fraud protection are handled by Xsolla.

The integration reaches more than 200 countries and supports over 1,000 payment methods and more than 130 currencies. The company also said players will be able to use SAND to buy in-game currency packs after Studio launches.

The Sandbox says its small revenue share applies only when creators earn. The percentage has not been published.

From alpha to beta

Studio was announced on June 9 as an AI-native engine that converts text prompts into live multiplayer games. It runs in a browser, and finished games publish to web and Telegram on desktop, mobile and tablet. Steam distribution is planned for later, the company has said.

More than 12,000 people applied for the alpha. It began with about 30 creators and added up to 10 seats each week. In August the Beta opened together with Engine 14, which swapped the legacy Actor/SceneComponent framework for a unified SceneNode structure and improved multiplayer replication.

By the September update, the company counted two engine updates since the Beta opened, more than 40 new games published by Beta Game Jam winners, and an exclusive partnership with Meshy AI. Creators can import assets from Scenario and Tripo, along with audio from Suno and ElevenLabs.

The September roadmap named in-game chat powered by Discord as one of the final items before public launch. The latest update did not mention it.

Games built in Studio already have a featured section of their own on sandbox.game.