Like Jay Arondekar, we love it when the mythology gets expanded! As if TV’s number one hit sitcom Ghosts couldn’t get any more spirited amid its first appearance at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday, CBS and Web3 agency CreativeDepartmint have launched the first of its kind metaverse with an immersive experience for fans through the popular and next-generation browser-based gaming platform, Decentraland. Celebrating the beloved title characters and living leads of the smash hit CBS Original, the game will be accessible through September at Ghosts Metaverse.
Exclusively previewed and tested with PopCulture.com ahead of SDCC, Woodstone Mansion — home of the “Livings” Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) and its dearly departed spirits, Trevor (Asher Grodman), Pete (Richie Moriarty), Flower (Sheila Carrasco), Alberta (Danielle Pinnock), Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky), Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), Sasappis (Román Zaragoza) and Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long) — is stuck in the Metaverse, but fans can help get it back. Activated and developed in collaboration with Web3 marketing agency CreativeDepartmint, fans and their self-designed avatars can journey through the show’s haunted Woodstone Mansion for the opportunity to solve puzzles, undertake quests and earn limited edition, collectible NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens).
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In a press release from CBS, President and Chief Marketing Officer Mike Benson expressed his excitement over the activation, which is part of the network’s Summer of Ghosts campaign honoring the “recently departed” first season and its upcoming sophomore season premiering this September. “We are continually looking for innovative ways to further develop new audiences for CBS programming, and our hit series Ghosts, with its significant following, wide-ranging otherworldly characters and expansive setting, seemed like a natural fit for the metaverse,” Benson said. “This super engaging and elaborate Web3 Ghosts game in Decentraland brings the series to life in an exciting way that’s never been done, enabling visitors to each have their own very unique experience while exploring the world of the show.”
As the quests are exciting to play with, there are also more than 10 types of collectibles fans can earn to unlock access and future experiences, like playing a piece of music on a virtual piano or cooking up a dish that will appeal to one of Woodstone’s characters. Additionally, the game and NFTs per CBS are “deployed on the carbon-neutral Polygon network,” also known as the leading decentralized Ethereum scaling platform. CreativeDepartmint worked closely with fellow Web3 platform Moonwalk to deliver the collectible NFTs, as well as the renowned metaverse studio TerraZero for a memorable Decentraland experience.
With a picturesque landscape meticulously created to mirror the show’s actual sets, the Ghosts Metaverse Web3 game does a brilliant job of blending elements and details of the show with charming graphics and distinctive Decentraland styling for a game that is genuine fun and most of all, uniquely immersive and engaging. Featuring delightful and surprising interactions with the show’s main characters, the Ghosts Metaverse takes fans on a journey through Woodstone Mansion with gameplay that runs between 15 to 20 minutes. One of the most fun parts of the game is not just the fetching graphics outlining the recreation of Woodstone Mansion and its intricate details, but in hearing from the series’ stars — voiced by the beloved cast — with never-before-heard dialogue created exclusively for the game. No surprise either, it is hilarious and feels almost like an episode out of the Joe Port and Joe Wiseman series. Some of the characters, like Flower and Hetty, even have some very funny dialogue that is truly laugh-out-loud.
The Ghosts Metaverse with all its remarkable detail also acts as its own “Choose Your Own Adventure” in some scenarios where you are given a choice, which makes it fun for multiple plays that deliver different experiences each time. Additionally, there are 1,100 tokens available for each character with contrasting degrees of rarity, providing fans the opportunity to own a piece of the beloved show’s history on a blockchain network that champions an unrivaled user experience and rapid speeds.
The CreativeDepartmint founder, Jonathan Block-Verk admits since opening the doors of his Web3 agency, the company has helped to support major media brands with innovative spaces, and launching Ghosts has proven to be the best way to kickstart what will no doubt be a new trend in fan engagement and reach. “Since we opened our doors, CreativeDepartmint has been bringing major media brands into innovative spaces like Web3 to surprise and delight existing fans and attract new audiences to their IP with authenticity and style,” Block-Verk said of what is one of their most captivating projects to date. “We’re thrilled to help CBS enter the metaverse with the first-ever Decentraland game built by a U.S. network.”
The Ghosts Metaverse is available through September. Ghosts returns for Season 2 on Sept. 29 at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS. For more on Ghosts and everything Season 2, stay tuned to the very latest about the show, news about the cast, and everything in between only on PopCulture. In the meantime, relive the first season of Ghosts on Paramount+ for free from June 3 to Sept. 2, 2022.
