Decentraland Gets Its Own Times Square and New Year’s Eve Ball Drop

 

Jamestown, the owner of the Times Square building in New York, partnered with Digital Currency Group (DCG) to recreate this famous place in the Big Apple in the virtual world of Decentraland (MANA) for the New Year’s Eve ball drop.

One Times Square, a 26-story building located in the heart of Times Square in New York City, is known for its annual tradition of New Year’s Eve ball drop, an event that signals the start of the new year and is preceded by live entertainment and performances by musicians.

This year, courtesy of the partnership with DCG, which is an investor in Decentraland, there will also be a virtual version of the celebration, dubbed “MetaFest 2022,” which should feature non-fungible token (NFT) art galleries, music and entertainment acts, rooftop VIP lounges, and immersive games.

Virtual billboards in the virtual One Times Square will also stream live feeds of the real-world Times Square, as well as virtual Zoom parties, Jamestown said.

“The metaverse is an important part of the evolution of real estate and the built environment,” Jamestown President Michael Phillips was quoted saying in the press release. “Whereas physical real estate is largely limited to people with geographic proximity, the metaverse can give people around the world meaningful access to places through immersive virtual experiences.”

As reported, the value and demand for virtual real estate in popular metaverse games like Decentraland and The Sandbox is soaring. Over the last week of November alone, investors poured USD 100m into NFT land sales.

Meanwhile, due to the Omicron outbreak, the celebration in the real-world Times Square has scaled back, limiting the attendees to 15,000 vaccinated who will also be obliged to wear masks, instead of the usual 58,000.

On the other hand, users can attend the virtual party in Times Square by joining Decentraland and finding the virtual One Times Square on (-106, -119) coordinates. The celebration will begin at 11:00 PM EST (04:00 AM UTC) and continue into the early hours of 2022. 

This year, the metaverse is experiencing increasing popularity, with tech giants like Meta and Microsoft, luxury brands and investment firms all have pushed deeper into this nascent sector. 

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Learn more: 
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