Gab Hernandez 
Warner Bros is partnering with an AI company to make Ready Player One a reality in the metaverse with the Readyverse.
Warner Bros had a controversial 2023. The plans of Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav have been met with criticism by many online. Most of the outrage is directed at Zaslav’s constant cancellation of projects, as well as putting many of their IPs under lock and key with no way to watch them.
That said, Warner Bros Discovery did have successes in 2023. Barbie was the highest-grossing film of the year, surpassing the Super Mario Bros Movie. making over $1.4 billion at the box office. Even its gaming division saw massive success thanks to the smashing success of Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat 1. Now, Warner Bros has the chance to capitalize on all of its IPs with the introduction of a Ready Player One metaverse experience.
What is the Readyverse?
The “Readyverse” is a metaverse platform created by Warner Bros alongside the novel’s author Ernest Cline. The newly-formed Readyverse Studios, alongside AI company Futureverse, will be launching a digital interactive platform dubbed the “Readyverse” which will serve as the nexus point for metaverse games and other interconnected digital content based on Warner Bros IPs.
Readyverse Studios aims to get the platform as close to the film adaptation as possible. The scope of the project is seemingly focusing on the social aspects of Ready Player One, down to corporate meetings as VR characters. The irony of Ready Player One being about the dangers of corporate-owned virtual realities was not lost on denizens online, many of whom criticized the project on the premise alone.
When will the Readyverse be available?
There is no official release window for the Readyverse at this time.
Official materials for the Readyverse imply that it is “poised to imminently pioneer the metaverse market.” This could mean that a release is coming in the near future, but it’s unclear whether this is actually the case. Warner Bros has a tall task in actually creating a successful metaverse product.
The most high-profile metaverse project was from Mark Zuckerberg’s company, Facebook. The rebranding of Facebook to Meta and the significant investment from the company sparked a tech industry gold rush around the concept. Nothing truly came of it and a definition for “metaverse” was never even truly agreed upon. By 2021, cryptocurrency succeeded it as the “next big thing” in tech.
The costs of Meta’s failed metaverse projects totaled over $100 billion and initiatives by other major tech companies like Microsoft have been shuttered. WB is hoping that the Readyverse will buck this trend.
