Someone bought a $650,000 NFT yacht for a game that hasn't been released

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What if we took the beloved children's game Minecraft, and added the concept of private property?

the metaflower in all its glory
Set sail for adventure! (Image credit: Republic Realm)

In the latest development of the NFT techno-financial trash fire none of us are allowed to look away from, Hypebeast reports that an NFT yacht just sold for $650,000. More precisely, the "Metaflower Super Mega Yacht" went for 149 "WETH" or "Wrapped Ethereum." Its utility over regular Ethereum eludes me, but crypto people love having multiple barriers of transfers, digital wallets, and withdrawals between the money of the future and money you can use to pay your rent.

What if Sea of Thieves, but the worst people you ever met owned all the islands? (Image credit: Republic Realm)

The Metaflower Super Mega Yacht's lucky (and anonymous) owner will be able to enjoy its completely digital DJ booth, helicopter landing pad, and single hot tub in "The Fantasy Islands," a self-described "luxury real estate development project of 100 NFT private islands (comprised of NFT land in the Sandbox + architecturally unique 3D NFT villas) on the Ethereum blockchain."

Are you still with me? You're going to wish you weren't. This unimpressive 3D model and attending luxury resort will live in "the Sandbox", a blockchain-based, self-described "metaverse." Its low-fi aesthetic and emphasis on user-generated content are strongly reminiscent of Roblox, as is its cosmetics-centric monetization, but on a vastly different scale. This is NFTs and the blockchain, so instead of little 12-year-olds sneaking their parents' credit cards so they can look like Thanos, it's adults with fully developed brains dropping $16,585 for the "Female Teacher" player model, which isn't even one of a kind. Have I mentioned that the Sandbox is still in a closed alpha?

Okay okay, what if we made Star Citizen, but without any impressive technology? (Image credit: Republic Realm)

If nothing else, all of this makes me feel better about buying League of Legends' Dunkmaster Darius skin for fifteen bucks back in 2014. Maybe if the Dunkmaster was on the blockchain, I wouldn't have lost him and my other skins when Riot updated their account system in early 2020. (I do not mourn their loss.) If all goes well, hopefully this stuff will all go down like the Hindenburg without taking the global financial system with it.

Ted Litchfield
Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.