Gordon Ramsay Enters the Metaverse as Hell’s Kitchen Partners with The Sandbox

Gordon Ramsay’s popular reality show Hell’s Kitchen is entering the metaverse through a partnership with The Sandbox, according to the Medium announcement. The deal will bring Hell’s Kitchen restaurant experiences to ITV’s LAND in The Sandbox’s virtual world and will include assets like Gordon Ramsay avatars. Ramsey himself too will play a role in the partnership.

ITV Studios to Host Hell’s Kitchen Metaverse Experiences in The Sandbox

Hell’s Kitchen, a reality competition cooking show hosted by the famous British chef Gordon Ramsay, is making a foray into the virtual world by partnering with the metaverse platform The Sandbox. Ramsay will personally provide his input for the design of Hell’s Kitchen virtual experiences, which will be hosted by ITV Studios in The Sandbox, which was recently deployed on Polygon to make make the ecosystem cheaper and greener.

In the announcement, Sandbox said the partnership will add “Hell’s Kitchen-themed assets, including limited edition Gordon Ramsay avatars” later on to allow players and metaverse enthusiasts to contribute their own experiences. You can see the teaser trailer for the partnership here:

Hosted by Ramsay himself, Hell’s Kitchen is an American reality cooking competition show that premiered back in 2005 on Fox. Since then, the show has traveled to 24 locations around the world and has won six Primetime Emmy nominations across 20 seasons.

In the show, two teams of chefs compete each season for the head chef position at a restaurant. Hell’s Kitchen’s partnership with the Sandbox represents the first cooking-themed metaverse experience to appear on the platform.

“There’s nothing more exciting to me than chartering new territory, whether that’s creating a signature dish, a new restaurant concept, a new show, or now a virtual experience in The Sandbox. I’ve been fascinated by The Sandbox and its offering in the metaverse. I couldn’t think of a better platform to bring the high energy of my Hell’s Kitchen restaurant and brand.”

– Gordon Ramsay

The deal could mark another important milestone for the expansion of the metaverse, which refers to the immersive experiences aimed at connecting people in the virtual world. These metaverse experiences are usually facilitated through the use of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) headsets.

Earlier this year, Fortune Business Insights (FBI) released a research report that forecasts the metaverse market to reach $1.5 trillion in global market value by 2029. The report says the rapidly growing online e-commerce and gaming markets and the increasing use of blockchain technology are among the main factors expected to drive metaverse market expansion.

Social media giant Facebook announced its metaverse-aligned rebrand last year when it changed its name to Meta Platforms. The company launched a $50 million fund last year to develop the Metaverse which it expects will be “fully realized in the next 10-15 years.”

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