Letter #1
Welcome to the new Letters to the Community part of the MetaZoo website! This is the creator of MetaZoo Games, Michael Waddell, and I want to use this space to reach out to the MetaZoo community on a weekly basis and provide updates on the happenings, the comings and goings, new things, etc… For those of you in the discord (https://t.co/fRJOg17qxy), followers of the instagram (https://www.instagram.com/metazoo_games/), members of our facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/MetaZooGamesLLC/), followers of our linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/company/71891848), much of this might be old news to you (and if you aren’t following these, please do!).
I’ll keep this week’s update short and sweet and focused primarily on one of our major efforts in 2023 - the MetaZoo IP! MetaZoo has spent the majority of its time since its inception with an eye on the development and release of products. We’ve released 5 core sets, with our 6th, Native, releasing in April. We’ve released pins, Topps cards, skateboards, longboards, wrapping paper, ornaments, Halloween masks… basically every product you can imagine. While we will see more of these products and even new product verticals developed in 2023, we now turn our eyes to the IP. Like any multimedia franchise, an IP - in other words a story, and all of its representations, that people can sink their teeth into - is the lifeblood that will turn fans of our products into lifelong lovers of MetaZoo! The success of our products these past 2 years has granted us this ability and pedigree to flesh out this IP with some of the biggest partners in the industry. This IP will activate many new fans from across the world, and create a legacy of worldbuilding that can be tapped into for decades to come. MetaZoo is in its pre-IP phase right now. Imagine the wonders we can achieve once the IP releases!
Many of you are familiar with the 6 chapters written in 2021 and 2022 (available for free in digital format on the front page at www.metazoogames.com), but this is just the start. These 6 chapters have been turned into a book that will be released in summer of 2023. It will be the first of 4 total books detailing Sam Sinclair’s incredible journey! It will be published in a limited format and released in the MetaZoo Marketplace (www.metazoomarketplace.com) and see a general, wider release through conventional publishing as well. In addition to this main book, we will be publishing a series of children’s books where each book focuses on a Cryptid/Beastie from American folklore.
From this first book, we are releasing a series of shorts with our animation studio, Pure Imagination. Think of these shorts as a prequel to the book, and more generally a pitch to Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc… for a larger release of a show that follows the book more closely.
We will be releasing a Smash Bros style fighting game with our arcade game partner, Glitchbit, that is planned to be debuted at San Diego Comic Con this summer. It will feature the main Beasties in the Cryptid Nation base set, with the intention of releasing every other set’s characters over the next 2 years until we catch up with our core sets. What’s particularly cool about this game is that its prizing will be in the form of an Arcade Set of cards that is dispensed every time a game is completed!
Last but certainly not least, we are in talks with a very large player in the theme park industry to create a MetaZoo experience at one of their locations. This experience will hopefully begin construction in Fall 2023, and we look forward to sharing more of these details with you in the months to come.
2023 will be MetaZoo’s biggest year yet, and perhaps more importantly it will lay the groundwork for an even bigger 2024, 2025, and so on. Stay tuned for next week’s update where I will be doing a deep dive into our Organized Play plans for 2023!
- Michael Waddell